(Reuters) – The boards of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks became more diverse by gender and race in 2025, data released by the U.S. central bank showed on Monday, although as a group the bank presidents and vice chairmen did not.
Women hold 10 of the 24 leadership positions on Fed banks’ boards, the same number as last year, according to a Reuters review of this year’s appointees. Eleven chairmen and vice-chairmen appointed this year identify as black, Hispanic or otherwise non-white, down from 14 last year.
More broadly, however, of the 108 seats on the Fed’s 12 boards, 43% are held by women, up from 39% last year. Some 39% are held by people of color, up from 37% last year.
The Washington-based Fed board, which selects chairs and vice chairs and has at least some influence over most other elections, has spent years trying to get more women and people of color to serve as Fed bank directors, a group that as recently as 2018 was most white and male.
The directors do not set monetary policy themselves, but regularly share their views on the economy and credit conditions with Fed bank presidents, who say the diversity of views leads to better policymaking in part because they are less likely to overlook key corners of the $23 trillion U.S. economy.
A report published last year by the Manhattan Institute argued that the Fed had tried to “overcorrect” its previous lack of racial and gender diversity, and should pay more attention to other forms of representation, including greater balance along the partisan political divide.
US central bank leaders say that politics does not and should not enter into their monetary policy-making process.
