December 23, 1913

Federal Reserve Act

Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act

The Senate finished with the bill at about half past two. Wilson signed it a few minutes after six, using four gold pens.

23 December 1913: signed just after six

The Senate completed action on the conference report at about 2:30 p.m. on 23 December 1913. President Woodrow Wilson signed the resulting bill at the White House a few minutes after 6 p.m.

He used four gold pens, with members of his family, the Cabinet and the congressional leadership gathered around him. Carter Glass and Robert L. Owen, the House and Senate banking chairmen behind the legislation, stood beside him.

What H.R. 7837 actually set up

The signature made the bill Public Law 63-43, the Federal Reserve Act. Its stated purposes included establishing Federal Reserve Banks, furnishing an elastic currency, rediscounting commercial paper and improving banking supervision.

It created a body called the Federal Reserve Board and authorized between eight and twelve Reserve districts and Reserve Banks. It did not choose twelve cities.

A central bank that existed only on paper

By nightfall the legal framework existed and little else. The administration still had to draw district boundaries, select Reserve Bank cities, organize and staff the banks and appoint the Board — work that took most of 1914.

Twelve Reserve Banks were eventually settled on, and they opened on 16 November 1914.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →