Gillis Elected to Term With Reserve Bank

Gillis Elected to Term With Reserve Bank

RICE NEWS
December 2, 1999

Rice President Malcolm Gillis was recently elected to a three-year term to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which has responsibilities that range from distribution of the nation’s currency to serving as banker for the U.S. Treasury.

Gillis will assume his post Jan. 1. He is currently on the board of directors of the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a position he has held since 1998.

“I always envied my Harvard colleague Jim Duesenberry for his service as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, since few academic economists have been named to the boards of any of the 12 semiautonomous Federal Reserve banks,” Gillis said. “I have already learned a great deal from my service at the Houston branch. I expect that serving with the main bank in Dallas will be even more helpful to my understanding of national and international monetary issues.”

Boards of directors of banks and branches in the system provide the Reserve 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 Fed’s board of governors in reaching major decisions about monetary policy.

Gillis has spent his professional life bringing economic analysis to bear on important issues of public policy in nearly 20 countries, from the United States and Canada to Ecuador, Colombia, Ghana and Indonesia. He has been a frequent consultant to Alaska, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Canadian Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.

As one of 12 regional banks in the Federal Reserve System, the Dallas Fed serves the 11th Federal Reserve District, which consists of Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico. The Dallas Fed also votes on changes in monetary policy, including upward or downward adjustments to the federal funds rate and the discount rate.

The Federal Reserve System operates a nationwide payment system, distribution of the nation’s currency, supervises and regulates member banks and bank holding companies and serves as banker for the U.S. Treasury.