IBM Chairman Arvind Krishna elected to Board of Directors of Federal Reserve Bank of New York

New York: IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday announced that 60-year-old Krishna has been elected as a Class B director, "representing the public with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labour, and consumers."

The New York Fed said in a statement that Krishna will fill the vacancy in the office for the remaining portion of a three-year term ending December 31, 2023.

"In his current and former roles, Krishna has led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in cloud, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing. He has also played a significant role in the development of innovative IBM products and solutions based on these emerging technologies," the statement added.

Krishna, who has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, previously was senior vice president of Cloud and Cognitive Software. He also headed IBM Research and was the general manager of IBM Systems and Technology Group's development and manufacturing organisation.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York works within the Federal Reserve System and with other public and private sector institutions to foster the safety, soundness and vitality of US economic and financial systems. It is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks which, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System.

The Fed, as the system is commonly called, is an independent governmental entity created by Congress in 1913 to serve as the central bank of the United States.

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 requires each of the Reserve Banks to operate under the supervision of a board of directors. Each Reserve Bank has nine directors who represent the interests of their Reserve District and whose experience provides the Reserve Banks with a wider range of expertise that helps them fulfil their policy and operational responsibilities, the statement said.

The nine directors of each Reserve Bank are divided evenly by classification: three Class A directors represent the member banks in the district; three Class B directors and Class C directors each represent the interests of the public, it said.

The directors of the Reserve Banks act as an important link between the Federal Reserve and the private sector, ensuring that the Fed's decisions on monetary policy are informed by actual economic conditions, it added.

The New York Fed oversees the Second Federal Reserve District, which includes New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey, Fairfield County in Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Though it serves a geographically small area compared with those of other Federal Reserve Banks, the New York Fed is the largest Reserve Bank in terms of assets and volume of activity, according to information on the Fed's website.