May 6 Dialogue To Feature ''''The St. Louis Fed at 100: Reflections on the 'Maverick' Reserve Bank

ST. LOUIS—The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis will host a special centennial version of its popular Dialogue with the Fed evening lecture series for the general public on Tuesday, May 6, 2014.

David Wheelock, a St. Louis Fed vice president and economic historian, will discuss "The St. Louis Fed at 100: Reflections on the 'Maverick' Reserve Bank." 

Wheelock will explore how St. Louis was chosen to be the site of one of the nation's 12 regional Federal Reserve banks (and why Missouri happens to be the only state with two); the roles of the St. Louis Fed and the Federal Reserve System; and why the St. Louis Fed became proudly known as the "maverick" Reserve bank for bucking conventional wisdom about monetary policy and inflation. Following the presentation, Wheelock will be joined by Mary Karr, senior vice president and general counsel, and Julie Stackhouse, senior vice president, Banking Supervision and Regulation, for a question-and-answer session with the audience that will be moderated by Memphis Branch Regional Executive Martha Perine Beard.

Only a few seats are left for this free presentation, which will be held from 7-8:30 p.m. Central time in the St. Louis Fed's Gateway Conference Center Auditorium. A reception with light refreshments will be held prior to the event, beginning at 6:15 p.m. As with all Dialogues, secure complimentary parking will be available in the Bank's parking garage. Online registration is available until May 1 via the Dialogue web site at www.stlouisfed.org/dialogue-with-the-fed.

The St. Louis Fed and 11 other regional Reserve banks were established in 1914 after President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law on Dec. 23, 1913.

The Act called for the establishment of a central, independent governmental agency (the Board of Governors, located in Washington, D.C.) combined with 12 regional Reserve banks to be located in major cities throughout the nation. The founders of the Fed believed that a geographically decentralized organization would be more responsive to differences in banking conditions across the nation and better able to help ensure the financial stability of the country.

The St. Louis Fed received its charter on May 18, 1914 and opened for business on Nov. 16, 1914.  Its first offices were located on the fourth floor of the former Boatmen’s Bank building at the corner of Olive Street and Broadway in downtown St. Louis.  The bank moved into its current headquarters at the northeast corner of Broadway and Locust in 1925.  Branch offices were established in Louisville in 1917,  Memphis in 1918  and Little Rock in 1919.

In addition to the May 6 Dialogue, the St. Louis Fed has a comprehensive Centennial web site and timeline available for those interested in digging deeper into the bank's history.

To view the Centennial site, see http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/centennial/.

To view the timeline, see  http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/centennial/timeline.

For those who cannot attend on-site, the Dialogue will also be webcast live beginning at 7 p.m. at www.stlouisfed.org/live/.

The "Dialogue with the Fed: Beyond Today's Financial Headlines" series was launched in the fall of 2011 to address the key economic and financial issues of the day, and to provide the opportunity to ask questions of Fed experts. The discussions are always free and open to the public.