The Fedwire Securities Service (FSS) is the

central securities depository A central securities depository (CSD) is a specialized financial market infrastructure organization holding securities such as shares or bonds, either in certificated or uncertificated ( dematerialized) form, allowing ownership to be easily tra ...

(CSD) for U.S. government securities, owned and operated by the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

. As of 2018 it was the world's largest CSD by value of securities held, well ahead of the

Depository Trust Company Depository Trust Company (DTC), founded in 1973, is a New York City, New York corporation that performs the functions of a central securities depository as part of the US National Market System. DTC annually settles transactions worth hundreds ...

and of

Euroclear Bank Euroclear Bank is the international central securities depository (ICSD) of the Euroclear Group, based in Brussels, Belgium. It is one of the world's two main ICSDs, the other one being Clearstream Banking SA in Luxembourg. As of 2018, it was t ...

Overview

The FSS started when the Federal Reserve began operating a book-entry system for U.S. Treasuries in 1968. Other federal and federally sponsored agencies followed suit in the 1970s and started issuing book-entry securities. In 1985, mortgage-backed securities were also issued in book-entry form by

Fannie Mae The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...

and

Freddie Mac The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is an American publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons, Virginia.Ginnie Mae The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), or Ginnie Mae, is a government-owned corporation of the United States Federal Government within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It was founded in 1968 and works to exp ...

in 1986. Thus, the FSS has developed to provide issuance, maintenance, transfer and settlement services for all marketable U.S. Treasury securities and also some securities issued by other federal government agencies,

government-sponsored enterprise A government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) is a type of financial services corporation created by the United States Congress. Their intended function is to enhance the flow of Credit (finance), credit to targeted sectors of the economy, to make tho ...

s, and

international organization An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own le ...

s such as the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. The Fedwire Securities Service is also the key interbank settlement system for

Fedwire Fedwire (formerly known as the Federal Reserve Wire Network) is a real-time gross settlement funds transfer system operated by the United States Federal Reserve Banks that allows financial institutions to electronically transfer funds between its ...

-eligible securities.

References

Federal Reserve System Central securities depositories {{finance-stub

Overview

See also

References