Reserved: One Seat on the Fed?

The Hill
Sunday, July 20, 2014

The Senate has passed legislation requiring the Federal Reserve to include at least one community banker on its seven member board. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen had pushed back on the bill, questioning the wisdom of reserving spots at the central bank for specific industries. But senators pressed ahead, adding the amendment to a terrorism insurance bill. The Federal Reserve board was left without a community bank voice after Elizabeth Duke resigned from the Fed in 2013 and President Obama took Sarah Bloom Raskin away for a job as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. The president has reportedly been mulling another community banker to fill one of the two open spots.