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The Board of Governors and the Government Performance and Results Act
The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) requires that federal agencies, in consultation with Congress and outside stakeholders, prepare a strategic plan covering a multiyear period and submit an annual performance plan and performance report. Although the Federal Reserve is not covered by the GPRA, the Board of Governors voluntarily complies with the spirit of the act.
Strategic Plan, Performance Plan, and Performance Report
The Board's strategic plan in the GPRA format, which is prepared biennially and covers a four-year period, articulates the Board's mission, sets forth major goals for the period, outlines strategies for achieving those goals, and discusses the environment and other factors that could affect their achievement. It also addresses issues that cross agency jurisdictional lines, identifies key quantitative measures of performance, and discusses performance evaluation. The most recent strategic plan, covering the period 2004-08, was made public in August 2004. (A strategic plan covering the period 2006-09 is scheduled for release in late spring 2006.)
The Board's performance plan, which is prepared biennially and covers a two-year period, sets forth specific targets for some of the performance measures identified in the strategic plan and describes the operational processes and resources needed to meet those targets; it also discusses data validation and verification of results. The most recent performance plan, covering the period 2004-05, was made public in August 2004. The equivalent document for 2006-07, in the form of a performance budget, will be released in 2006.
The most recent performance report, covering the period 2002-03, was made public in August 2004. The report indicates that the Board generally met its goals for 2002-03. A performance report covering 2004-05 will be released in 2006.
These documents--the strategic and performance plans and the performance report--are available on the Board's web site, at www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress . The Board's mission statement and a summary of the Federal Reserve's goals and objectives, as set forth in the most recently released strategic and performance plans, are given below.
Mission
The mission of the Board is to foster the stability, integrity, and efficiency of the nation's monetary, financial, and payment systems so as to promote optimal macroeconomic performance.
Goals and Objectives
The Federal Reserve has six primary goals with interrelated and mutually reinforcing elements:
Goal
To conduct monetary policy that promotes the achievement of maximum sustainable long-term growth and the price stability that fosters that goal
Objectives
- Stay abreast of recent developments and prospects in the U.S. economy and financial markets, and in those abroad, so that monetary policy decisions will be well informed.
- Enhance our knowledge of the structural and behavioral relationships in the macroeconomic and financial markets, and improve the quality of the data used to gauge economic performance, through developmental research activities.
- Implement monetary policy effectively in rapidly changing economic circumstances and in an evolving financial market structure.
- Contribute to the development of U.S. international policies and procedures, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and other agencies.
- Promote understanding of Federal Reserve policy among other government policy officials and the general public.
Goal
To promote a safe, sound, competitive, and accessible banking system and stable financial markets
Objectives
- Promote overall financial stability, manage and contain systemic risk, and identify emerging financial problems early so that crises can be averted.
- Provide a safe, sound, competitive, and accessible banking system through comprehensive and effective supervision of U.S. banks, bank and financial holding companies, foreign banking organizations, and related entities. At the same time, remain sensitive to the burden on supervised institutions.
- Provide a dynamic work environment that is challenging and rewarding. Enhance efficiency and effectiveness, while remaining sensitive to the burden on supervised institutions, by addressing the supervision function's procedures, technology, resource allocation, and staffing issues.
- Promote compliance by domestic and foreign banking organizations supervised by the Federal Reserve with applicable laws, rules, regulations, policies, and guidelines through a comprehensive and effective supervision program.
Goal
To effectively implement federal laws designed to inform and protect the consumer, to encourage community development, and to promote access to banking services in historically underserved markets
Objectives
- Take a leadership role in shaping the national dialogue on consumer protection in financial services, addressing the rapidly emerging issues that affect today's consumers, strengthening consumer compliance supervision programs when required, and remaining sensitive to the burden on supervised institutions.
- Promote, develop, and strengthen effective communications and collaborations within the Board, the Federal Reserve Banks, and other agencies and organizations.
- Increase public understanding of consumer protection and community development and the Board's role in these areas through increased outreach and by developing programs that address the information needs of consumers and the financial services industry.
- Develop a staff that is highly skilled, professional, innovative, and diverse, providing career development opportunities to ensure the retention of highly productive staff and recruiting highly qualified and skilled employees.
- Promote an efficient and effective work environment by aligning business functions with appropriate work processes and implementing solutions for work products and processes that can be handled more efficiently through automation.
Goal
To foster the integrity, efficiency, and accessibility of U.S. payment and settlement systems
Objectives
- Develop sound, effective policies and regulations that foster payment system integrity, efficiency, and accessibility. Support and assist the Board in overseeing U.S. dollar payment and securities settlement systems by assessing their risks and risk-management approaches against relevant policy objectives and standards.
- Conduct research and analysis that contributes to policy development and increases the Board's and others' understanding of payment system dynamics and risk.
Goal
To provide high-quality professional oversight of Reserve Banks
Objective
- Produce high-quality assessments and oversight of Federal Reserve System strategies, projects, and operations, including adoption of technology to the business and operational needs of the Federal Reserve. The oversight process and outputs should help Federal Reserve management foster and strengthen sound internal control systems, efficient and reliable operations, effective performance, and sound project management and should assist the Board in the effective discharge of its oversight responsibilities.
Goal
To foster the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Board programs
Objectives
- Oversee a planning and budget process that clearly identifies the Board's mission, results in concise plans for the effective accomplishment of operations, transmits to the staff the information needed to attain objectives efficiently, and allows the public to measure our accomplishments.
- Develop appropriate policies, oversight mechanisms, and measurement criteria to ensure that the recruiting, training, and retention of staff meet Board needs.
- Establish, encourage, and enforce a climate of fair and equitable treatment for all employees regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, age, or sex.
- Provide financial management support needed for sound business decisions.
- Provide cost-effective and secure information resource management services to Board divisions, support divisional distributed-processing requirements, and provide analysis on information technology issues to the Board, Reserve Banks, other financial regulatory institutions, and central banks.
- Efficiently provide safe, modern, and secure facilities and necessary support for activities conducive to efficient and effective Board operations.