RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - The current U.S. economic slowdown is nothing like the Great Depression of the 1930s, in part because the U.S. Federal Reserve is far more proactive, Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

Bernanke, whose academic studies have focused on the Great Depression, said during that era the central bank allowed banks to fail, prices to fall and the money supply to contract, which contributed to the protracted slump.

"We now know the lessons from that," Bernanke told the World Affairs Council. "We are certainly going to make sure that the financial system remains in good functioning order."

(Reporting by Joanne Morrison; Writing by Emily Kaiser, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)