#FOMCMeeting The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed) responsible, under U.S. law, for overseeing the country's open market operations (for example, the buying and selling of U.S. Treasury securities by the Fed).

This Federal Reserve committee makes key decisions regarding interest rates and the growth of the money supply in the United States. Under the terms of the original Federal Reserve Act, each of the Federal Reserve banks was authorized to buy and sell in the open market short-term government bonds and obligations of the United States, bank acceptances, wire transfers, and promissory notes. Therefore, the reserve banks sometimes competed with each other in the open market. In 1922, an informal committee was established to execute purchases and sales. The Banking Act of 1933 formed an official FOMC.

The FOMC is the primary body of U.S. national monetary policy. The Committee establishes monetary policy by specifying the short-term objective for the Federal Reserve's open market operations, which is usually a target level for the federal funds rate (the rate that commercial banks charge each other for overnight loans).

The FOMC also directs the operations undertaken by the Federal Reserve System in the foreign exchange markets, although any intervention in such markets is coordinated with the U.S. Treasury, which is responsible for formulating U.S. policies regarding the exchange value of the dollar.