Chair's Message: What It Means to Be a Trusted Provider

What It Means to Be a Trusted Provider

Kathleen M. Mazzarella is the chairman, president and CEO of Graybar Electric Co. Inc.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis motto, “Central to America’s Economy,” captures so well the daily drive across the organization to serve the public as a trusted provider of innovative ideas and solutions. 

This mindset influences the way the Bank’s economists conduct cutting-edge macroeconomic research, and it guides the development of critical financial management applications for the U.S. Treasury. It shapes the Bank’s approach to providing comprehensive training and certification programs for bank examiners across the Federal Reserve System and inspires the creation of innovative educational curricula for teachers across the country. And, it is exhibited by the Bank’s renowned publicly available data services tool we have come to know fondly as FRED^®—Federal Reserve Economic Data—which is the subject of this annual report.

Launched in 1991 as an electronic bulletin board, FRED has transformed over the years into an easy-to-use online repository of more than 520,000 U.S. and international economic and socioeconomic time series from 87 different sources—all in one place. In providing free access to such vast data, along with the tools to analyze them, FRED puts the power to better understand the economy and economic issues in real time at all of our fingertips—from the academic or financial expert to anyone who is simply curious. That, in turn, better equips policymakers, researchers, media, businesses, families and communities to make better financial decisions.

As chair of the board of directors, I am pleased to see how the Bank’s long-standing passion for innovation and excellence has led to the creation of publicly available tools like FRED.

St. Louis Fed employees are consistently focused on the organization’s mission of ensuring a healthy economy and promoting financial stability. This sense of purpose is a main reason why the Bank was again named a top workplace by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2018. Furthermore, the mission defines what the Bank has been since opening its doors in 1914: central to America’s economy. The people of the St. Louis Fed each day embrace a legacy of being independent-minded, engaged, innovative and trusted—enduring qualities that continue to strengthen our nation’s economy.

Kathleen M. Mazzarella
Chair of the Board of Directors
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis