In 1981 the Federal Reserve System adopted a new pricing policy for certain correspondent banking and other services, such as check clearing and settlement, supplied by Reserve Banks. The new policy was mandated by the Monetary Control Act of 1980, which gave all depository institutions equal...

The Monetary Control Act of 1980 radically changed the role of the Federal Reserve in the interbank clearing market. Among other things, the Act required the Fed to give all depository institutions equal access to its payments services and to price those services competitively. In this article,...