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Under the Federal Reserve Act, each of the twelve Reserve Banks is separately incorporated with its own board of directors. In each Reserve District, commercial banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System own the stock of their District's Reserve Bank and elect the majority of the Reserve Bank's board of directors; the remainder of the directors are appointed by the Federal Reserve Board.

Classes of Directors and Their Manner of Election
Each Federal Reserve Bank has a nine-member board of directors: The member banks elect the three Class A and three Class B directors, and the Board of Governors appoints the three directors in Class C. Directors are chosen without discrimination as to race, creed, color, or national origin. The directors in each class serve staggered three-year terms.

Class A directors of each Reserve Bank represent the stockholding member banks of the Federal Reserve District. Class B and Class C directors represent the public and are chosen with due, but not exclusive, consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers; Class B and Class C directors may not be officers, directors, or employees of any bank. In addition, Class C directors may not be stockholders of any bank. The Board of Governors annually designates one Class C director at each District Bank as chairman of the board of directors and another Class C director as deputy chairman.

Each of the twenty-five Branches of the Federal Reserve Banks has a board of either seven or five directors, a majority of whom are appointed by the parent Federal Reserve Bank; the others are appointed by the Board of Governors. Branch directors serve staggered three-year terms (two-year terms if the Branch has five directors). One of the members appointed by the Federal Reserve Board is designated annually as chairman of the board of that Branch in a manner prescribed by the parent Federal Reserve Bank.

Economic Intelligence Provided by Directors
The boards of directors of the Reserve Banks and Branches provide the Federal Reserve System with a wealth of information on economic conditions in virtually every corner of the nation. This information is used by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the Board of Governors in reaching decisions about monetary policy.

Information from directors and other sources gathered by the Reserve Banks is also shared with the public in a special report--informally called the Beige Book--which is issued about two weeks before each meeting of the FOMC. In addition, the Federal Reserve Act requires that each Reserve Bank establish discount rates every fourteen days, subject to "review and determination" by the Board of Governors.

Thus, regional participation and counsel mark the conduct of the System's affairs, for which the Federal Reserve relies importantly on the contributions of the directors of the Federal Reserve Banks and Branches.