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Board members are not policymakers themselves. But they share their perspectives on the economy in regular meetings with each of the 12 bank presidents who, along with five Fed policymakers in Washington, set the nation’s interest rates.

They matter because the boards, or more precisely the two-thirds of directors who are not bankers, hire Fed bank presidents.

Among this particularly influential boardroom subset, white men are now outnumbered by women and minorities by more than two to one, a Reuters analysis shows. For a graphic, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2QTNhk1

“That’s an area where we could make that commitment to having more women, more minorities very visibly effective in a short period of time,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard told Reuters. “There’s been a real sea change.”

As of Jan. 1, 64 of the 108 directors at all 12 Federal Reserve banks were women, or men of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American descent. In 2015, 70 of the 108 were white men.

Six of each nine-member board are supposed to represent the public and are often local leaders in business, education or labor, with three appointed by the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors and three by local bankers.

Among the remaining three directors, who represent banks and are by law barred from taking part in choosing Fed presidents, the majority remains white and male, and none are non-white women.

Even so, the Fed’s boards overall are more diverse than corporate America. Women constitute 26% of directors at S&P 500 Index companies, according to a May 2019 report from Spencer Stuart. At the top 200 companies, minorities accounted for 19% of directors. Boards at big U.S. banks are 30% female and 20% minority, a report published this month by House Financial Services Committee Democrats showed.