Deloitte & Touche LLP
555 12th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20004-1207
USA
To the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:
We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the "Board"), which are comprised of the balance sheets as of December 31, 2013 and 2012, and the related statements of operations, and cash flows for the years then ended, and the related notes to the financial statements. We also have audited the Board's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework (1992) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
The Board's management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America; this includes the design, implementation, and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. The Board's management is also responsible for its assertion of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management's Assertion.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and an opinion on the Board's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We conducted our audit of the financial statements in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, auditing standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB"), and the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and we conducted our audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with attestation standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and in accordance with the auditing standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.
An audit of financial statements involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor's judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the Board's preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. An audit of financial statements also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. An audit of internal control over financial reporting involves obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinions.
The Board's internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the Board's principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by the Board's Committee on Board Affairs, management, and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The Board's internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the Board; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, and that receipts and expenditures of the Board are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and governors of the Board; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection and correction of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the Board's assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Board as of December 31, 2013 and 2012, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the years then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also, in our opinion, the Board maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2013, based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (1992) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
In accordance with Government Auditing Standards, we have also issued a report dated March 12, 2014 on our tests of the Board's compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, grant agreements, and other matters. The purpose of that report is to describe the scope of our testing of compliance and the results of that testing, and not to provide an opinion on compliance. That report is an integral part of an audit performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and should be read in conjunction with this report in considering the results of our audits.
Deloitte & Touche LLP
March 12, 2014
