Process of Printing Bills

Question

I have 3 questions:

Who emits the order to the bureau of engraving and printing for printing the bills? Is it the Federal Open Market Committee or the Federal Open Market Committee established a meeting and then if they decide that new money needs to be created they leave the meeting and then contact the 12 federal reserve banks and then the 12 reserve banks contact the bureau of engraving and printing to make an order for printing money?

If it is the case that the federal reserve banks are the ones that issue the order to the bureau of engraving and printing. Does that mean that each governing board of the 12 federal reserve banks contact the Bureau of engraving and printing?

When the Bureau of engraving and printing is finished printing the bills, do they have 12 trucks to give the freshly printed bills to the 12 reserve banks and then those 12 reserve banks send the bills to each commercial and investment bank?

Answer 1

Brief answer: the impetus to print physical money does not come from the FOMC. When the FOMC decides on a policy like QE, which is colloquially referred to as ‘printing money’, this is actually achieved through computer entries, no physical money involved. Rather, what triggers the need for printed bills is when members of the public withdraw cash from ATMs all over the country. Then each bank needs to have enough cash to keep ATMs filled. I honestly don’t know how this cash is ‘ordered’ , whether each bank contacts the NY Fed directly or whether the request is handled through the local Federal Reserve district. But that is just mechanical.