The mother of all Federal Reserve regional banks has called 33 Liberty Street home since 1924. The building was designed to evoke an Italian Renaissance palazzo, perhaps in homage to the great Banco dei Medici. Never mind that bank failed in 1494. While no crimes of interest (so to speak) have been hatched within its confines, this is where financial firms and their employees get sent to detention via civil enforcement actions, monetary penalties, and banishment from the world of finance. For example, in May 2015 the Fed’s enforcement actions against Barclays for unsafe and unsound practices related to compliance and control in its foreign-exchange practices cost the bank $342 million in penalties. According to the Fed’s database, in the past 28 years some 224 individuals have been permanently barred from banking. The Salomon Brothers Treasury scandal in 1991 led the Federal Reserve Board to send a warning letter to the New York–based investment bank, forcing it to admit it had known that one of its traders had violated rules surrounding U.S. government debt, The Washington Post reported at the time. The New York Fed is one of 12 regional Fed banks and says it’s the largest based on assets and volume of activity. All major discussions during the 2008 financial crisis took place here. The 14-story building has five underground floors where one quarter of the world’s gold bullion rests.



