To give you a sense of the dispersal of resources within the Federal Reserve, more than 22,000 employees work in the System, meaning both the Banks and the Board. Of that number, about 1,700 work for the Board in Washington, and the remaining 20,000-plus work in the twelve Banks.
Yet even the most sophisticated domestic financial systems can be affected significantly. For example, the risks can be exacerbated by funding patterns and currency mismatches, as happened in the United States during the financial crisis.