NOT FED UP. Northwestern Bank President Jerry Jacobson and the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. (Right: Submitted photo. Left: Photo by Susan Lesch | CC BY-SA 3.0)

A veteran Chippewa Valley banker has been elected to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which regulates and serves banks across the Upper Midwest and beyond.

Jerry Jacobson, president of Chippewa Falls-based Northwestern Bank, was elected by the member banks of the Ninth Federal Reserve District to serve a three-year term on the board beginning Dec. 31. Jacobson will serve as one of three bank representatives on the nine-member board. (Other board members represent business, industry, labor, consumers, agriculture, and other constituencies.)

Jacobson has worked at Northwestern Bank for 42 years, the last 22 of them as president. A Chippewa Falls native and UW-Eau Claire graduate, Jacobson has been involved in numerous local organizations, including the board of Eau Claire Confluence Arts Inc., the nonprofit that owns the Pablo Center at the Confluence. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Wisconsin Bankers Association.

The Minneapolis Fed serves a six-state district, which encompasses all of Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and 26 counties in northwestern Wisconsin, including Chippewa, Dunn, and Eau Claire.

So what does the Minneapolis Fed’s board do? Here’s some insight from the institution itself:

Minneapolis Fed directors are selected to represent a cross section of the Ninth District economy, including consumers, industry, agriculture, the service sector, labor, and commercial banks of various sizes. ...

The responsibilities of directors are broad, ranging from overseeing the general operations of the Minneapolis Fed to reporting on district economic conditions. This information helps prepare the Minneapolis Fed president for participation in Federal Open Market Committee meetings, where decisions are made about monetary policy.

A big part of making monetary policy involves setting interest rates, meaning Jacobson’s role on the board will have an indirect impact on some of the Fed’s biggest financial decisions.

Here’s some more info on the Minneapolis Fed:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System, the nation’s central bank. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is responsible for the Ninth Federal Reserve District. ... The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous banking organizations, and provides a variety of payments services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.