Each of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks has a president who serves as its chief executive officer. One of the most important duties of the Reserve Bank president is to serve on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which meets eight times a year at Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, DC, to set US monetary policy. Only five Reserve Bank presidents along with the seven members of the Board of Governors vote on monetary policy actions in any one year, but all 12 participate in FOMC discussions and take their turns as voting members. Because of New York’s key role in the US financial system, the president of the New York Fed is a permanent voting member of the FOMC; the other 11 presidents rotate to vote once every two or three years.
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