The Board of Governor's of the Federal Reserve System is part of government. It's an independent federal agency, with about 2,000 employees The system also inc

The Board of Governor's of the Federal Reserve System is part of government. It's an independent federal agency, with about 2,000 employees The system also includes 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks, which are quasi-private. There's a mixture of public and private control of them. The member banks in each region get to elect 6 of the 9 directors. Each member bank gets two votes and the vote is divided by bank size, so the big banks in each region choose two directors, the medium banks two, and the small banks two. The remaining 3 directors are appointed by the Board of Governors (the federal agency). The Federal Reserve Banks are considered federal entities for some purposes, but private entities for others. The member banks in each region are required to own a certain amount of stock in their Federal Reserve Bank. They get paid a 6% annual dividend of the amount that they have invested in the Federal Reserve. All remaining profits (the vast majority) go to the federal government.