Recent debates about Federal Reserve accounts have focused on interpreting the provisions of the 1980 Monetary Control Act (MCA) which expanded account access to 35,000 additional depository institutions. However, these debates have not had the benefit of an empirical foundation on historic account take-up, which we provide here. We find that opening of accounts after 1980 was gradual and concentrated among the largest institutions. These findings are consistent with the expectations of contemporaries that the MCA was not expected or intended to displace the system of correspondent banking that served smaller institutions.