WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve’s inspector general said the Fed violated its own rules for handling confidential material when it inadvertently issued the minutes of a policy meeting a day before the scheduled release in April.

The inspector’s report on Thursday recommended procedural changes after the Fed’s minutes from March were sent a day early to more than 100 staff members in Congress, lobbyists for the financial industry, and employees of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

The minutes had been scheduled for release at 2 p.m. April 10. The Fed discovered that they had been inadvertently e-mailed a day early by a staff member in the office that acts as the Fed’s liaison with Congress. The Fed then released the minutes to the public and the news media five hours earlier than scheduled.

The inspector’s report said the Fed had failed to provide sufficient training to employees in handling confidential information. It also said the Fed failed to properly limit access to employees who need to know the information before the public.