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Becker's departure was effective on Friday, a spokesperson for
the Federal Reserve said. Earlier on Friday, Silicon Valley Bank
<SIVB.O> was closed by regulators.
The spokesperson declined to say how Becker exited the San
Francisco Fed board. Becker served as a Class A director at the
San Francisco Fed, one of three finance executives representing
member banks in the San Francisco Fed district.
Each regional bank is overseen by boards comprised of private
citizens. In addition to having three directors to represent
banks, there are six other directors who present a mix of local
businesses and community interests. Three of those directors are
selected by the Fed's Board of Governors in Washington, while
the remainder are selected in a local process.
The 12 regional Federal Reserve banks are quasi-private
institutions overseen by the Fed in Washington. Their respective
boards watch over the banks directly and provide advice on
governance as well as local economic intelligence.
Most importantly, these boards also lead the process to select
new presidents when there are vacancies, although directors from
firms regulated by the Fed are not allowed to participate in
that process.
The directors of the Fed banks have been in the spotlight in
recent years as the central bank has faced criticism that bank
directors lacked racial and gender diversity and were too
weighted towards the business and banking community. The Fed has
been working on expanding who serves in these roles.
The boards have also created issues for the Fed in years past.
The New York Fed’s board was heavily dominated by bankers at the
onset of the global financial crisis and even included the
leader of Lehman Brothers, a firm whose failure in the fall of
2008 is widely seen as kicking off the most acute phase of the
financial crisis.
In 2019, the Chicago Fed’s then board chair resigned her term
early as her employer faced legal trouble.
(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Leslie Adler and
Diane Craft)
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