From 2008 to 2012, total annual Reserve Bank coin management costs increased by 69 percent and at individual Reserve Banks increased at rates from 36 to 116 percent, GAO has said in calling for better performance information on coin inventory management.
In 2009, the Federal Reserve centralized coin management across the 12 Reserve Banks, established national inventory targets to track and measure the coin inventory, and in 2011 established a contract with armored carriers that store Reserve Bank coins in their facilities, according to GAO-14-110.
It said however that the agency does not monitor coin management costs by each Reserve Bank, and instead focuses on combined national coin and note costs, thus missing potential opportunities to improve the cost-effectiveness of coin-related operations across Reserve Banks.
GAO said the Federal Reserve generally agreed to develop a process to assess factors influencing coin operations costs and to identify practices that could lead to cost-savings, as well as to establish additional performance goals and metrics relevant to coin inventory management.
