Content area
Full text
A quiet revolution has been taking place behind the marble and granite downtown facade of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
The Cleveland Fed in the last few years has responded to competitive pressures from inside and outside the Federal Reserve System by changing the way it does business. And so far, the changes seem to have made a difference.
According to the Federal Reserve's international system of measurements, the Cleveland Fed last year ranked No. 1 in efficiency among the 12 Fed banks. That was the first time it achieved such a ranking.
The Cleveland Fed represents the fourth district of the reserve system. With offices in Cincinnati, Columbus and Pittsburgh, the Cleveland bank covers Ohio, western Pennsylvania, the northern panhandle of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
When the system began ranking its banks 17 years ago, the Cleveland Fed came in last. Five years ago, the Cleveland Fed ranked second.
The improvement in efficiency has helped the Cleveland Fed retain some services that might have gone elsewhere as the entire Federal Reserve System in recent years has undergone its own consolidation.
For example, the Pittsburgh office of the Cleveland Fed has become one of only five sites in the system to process savings bonds, according to Edward E. Richardson, vice president of marketing at the Cleveland bank. The Federal Reserve System five years ago had 26 sites that processed savings bonds.
Pittsburgh also has become one of two sites to print...