The **Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta**, commonly known as the **Atlanta Fed**, is one of 12 regional banks in the U.S. Federal Reserve System, serving the Sixth District: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.[1][9] Established to foster a safer, more flexible monetary and financial system, it supervises member banks, processes payments, distributes currency, and conducts economic research to inform national policy.[3][4] Opened on **November 16, 1914**, in rented space at Atlanta's Hurt Building, the Atlanta Fed emerged from the 1913 Federal Reserve Act signed by President Woodrow Wilson amid calls for banking reform post-panic of 1907.[1][2][10] Atlanta's bankers lobbied fiercely for the site, beating rivals due to its transportation hub status.[2] Early efforts focused on bolstering the cotton-dependent Southeast economy, enrolling banks, and opening the system's first branch in New Orleans (1915), followed by Birmingham, Jacksonville, and Nashville.[1][3] It moved to its own Marietta Street building in 1918.[1] **Key achievements** span crises and innovation. During the 1930s Depression, it liquidated failed banks, absorbed odd assets like a $1 cow, and stabilized deposits pre-FDIC.[5] In the 1950s, it expanded check processing and incinerated unfit currency locally.[1] Pioneering **technology**, it installed electronic check readers in 1963 (40x faster than manual), launched one of the nation's first automated clearing houses in the late 1960s, and became the top electronic funds transfer standard-setter and most efficient money-processing facility.[3][4] Its Research Department, founded in 1938, shifted from agriculture to broader policy insights.[4] Today, the Atlanta Fed thrives as a modern powerhouse, adapting to the South's economic transformation from agrarian roots t