The Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) supervises the following entities and has the statutory authority to take formal enforcement actions against them:
- State member banks
- Bank holding companies
- Savings and loan holding companies
- Nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies and of savings and loan holding companies
- Edge Act and agreement corporations
- Branches and agencies of foreign banking organizations operating in the United States and their parent banks
- Systemically important nonbank financial companies designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) for supervision by the Federal Reserve
- Officers, directors, employees, and certain other categories of individuals or entities associated with the above banks, companies, and organizations (referred to as "institution-affiliated parties")
Generally, the Federal Reserve takes formal enforcement actions against the above entities and individuals for violations of laws, rules, or regulations, unsafe or unsound practices, breaches of fiduciary duty, and violations of final orders. Formal enforcement actions include cease and desist orders, written agreements, prompt corrective action directives, removal and prohibition orders, and orders assessing civil money penalties.
Since August 1989, the Federal Reserve has made all final enforcement orders public in accordance with the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989; since November 1990, it has made written agreements public in accordance with the Crime Control Act of 1990. Since July 21, 2011, the Federal Reserve has made public all final enforcement actions taken by the Federal Reserve regarding savings and loan holding companies. Formal enforcement actions taken by the Federal Reserve before August 1989 are not public.
Since 2008, the Federal Reserve has posted "Section 19 Letters" on the Board of Governors' public website. Reserve Banks send Section 19 Letters (referring to section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, 12 U.S.C. ยง 1829) to individuals, generally institution-affiliated parties of entities supervised by the Federal Reserve, who have been convicted of a crime involving dishonesty, a breach of trust, or money laundering, or who have entered into a pretrial diversion or similar program in connection with a prosecution for such a crime. Section 19 prohibits any individual with such a conviction, or who has entered into such a program, from participating in the affairs of insured depository institutions, their holding companies, or credit unions without prior regulatory or judicial approval.