Cash

As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System ensures that financial institutions have sufficient supplies of currency and coin to meet public demand. To improve the efficiency, security, and risk management of cash processing, the Fed also works to advance technology and deliver greater standardization of services.

Reserve Bank cash offices directly serve more than half of the banks, savings and loans, and credit unions in the United States. (The remaining financial institutions obtain currency and coin from other banks with which they have a correspondent relationship.) The Cash Product Office, based at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, provides leadership and direction for Reserve Bank cash operations system-wide.

With operations in Baltimore, Charlotte, and Richmond, the Cash Services division at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond:

• Distributes currency and coin to financial institutions in the Fifth Federal Reserve District (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and most of West Virginia),
• Removes unfit currency from circulation on behalf of the U.S. Treasury Department, and
• Works with the Currency Technology Office (CTO) to support the testing and acceptance of high-speed processing equipment, counterfeit detection technology, and currency designs.

The Richmond Fed is also the headquarters for the CTO, the technical arm of the Cash Product Office. The organization supports the cash processing operations of the Reserve Banks, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the U.S. Secret Service, focusing on the automation of physical currency handling and the Fed's high-speed processing equipment.