Federal Reserve banks which are under special obligations and duties are not only closely supervised by, but in fact operated under, close government supervision. Two features deserve to be specially noted in this connection:

1. Owing to its close relation with the government, each Federal Reserve bank has a special officer representing the government, who is chairman of its board of directors and who is designated as "Federal Reserve agent."

2. Every Federal Reserve bank confines its discount business to other banks, a fact which at once alters the type of organization of the institution in some important particulars.