Fedwire

I think this is where money is born:  Money is created with an entry on a keyboard at the Federal Reserve Bank and given existence as a data entity with a push of the enter button.  Where it is conceived, in whose head the amount is determined and the logic process behind the decision is something to think about later.

The purpose here is to explore where the newly created money goes the instant after it is created.

While the Fed gives tours of its gold, paper cash and museum to visitors from Peoria, what I want to do is take the geek tour of where the real action is:  The computer system that processes all the digital money.

The computer system that handles money is called Fedwire.  Fedwire is only one of a package of system services owned and operated by the Fed and offered on a fee basis to users.  Since this a privately owned system of a private bank there is probably little or no detailed documentation describing its total structure, relationships and operation as a computer information system other than reverse engineering from whatever can be found that is generally written about it in various places. 

I conclude that at the very instant that money is created at the Fed it is born into the Fedwire system.  Where it goes or could go from there would fascinate a geek.  The fed has all the documentation describing the sytem from high level view down to programming implementation.  It would be a very interesting thing to see.  I am sure that it is locked up tighter than the gold or cash they hold.

Fedwire is the Real Time Gross Settlement system of the United States.  The systems of other countries are listed at the same link.

The Peoples Bank of China System called China National Advanced Payment System (CNAPS) is their Real Time Gross Settlement system like ours is the  Fedwire system.