For Terms of Office Ending December 31, 2000
To the Member Banks of the Second Federal Reserve District:
An election will be held under the provisions of section 4 of the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, to choose successors, to serve for three-year terms, to the following directors of this Bank whose terms will expire December 31, 1997: class A director, J. Carter Bacot, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Bank of New York, New York, N.Y.; and class B director, Eugene R. McGrath, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Both directors were elected by member banks in Group 1 and their successors will be chosen by this group. Member banks in Groups 2 and 3 will not participate in this election.
The classification of member banks for the purposes of nomination and election of class A and B directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is as follows:
Group 1 consists of banks with capital and surplus of more than $1 billion;
Group 2, of banks with capital and surplus of $30 million to $1 billion, inclusive; and
Group 3, of banks with capital and surplus of less than $30 million.
For the purposes of this election, a member bank's classification will be determined by its capital and surplus as of the date of this circular, even though its capital and surplus may change before the polls close. The list of banks comprising Group 1 is on page 3.
Except in the case of any member banks that are subsidiaries of the same bank holding company,* each member bank in Group 1 is permitted to nominate one candidate for class A director and one candidate for class B director.+ The nominations should be made by resolutions of the boards of directors of the nominating banks (or by resolutions of the banks' executive committees, if such committees are empowered to take such action), and certified copies of such resolutions should be sent to this Bank so as to reach this Bank on or before 3 p.m. on Monday, November 24, 1997. The enclosed printed forms show the appropriate form of resolution; one executed copy of each form should be returned to this Bank in the envelope provided for that purpose.
On November 26, 1997, copies of the list of candidates (indicating by whom nominated) and preferential ballots will be mailed to the banks in Group 1. The law provides that the ballot shall be cast within 15 days after receipt of this list. The polls will open at 10 a.m., December 1, 1997, and will close at 12 noon on Tuesday, December 16, 1997. Upon the closing of the polls, the ballot box will be opened, the votes counted and checked by tellers, and the results of the election announced. The candidates may, if they so desire, be present or represented on that occasion.
In order to be counted as valid, the ballot must be executed by an officer authorized to cast the vote and must be received by this Bank at or before the time thus fixed for the closing of the polls (i.e., at or before 12 noon on Tuesday, December 16, 1997). The officers heretofore designated for this purpose by each bank in Group 1 are shown on the list on page 3. Any Group 1 bank that desires to change its authorization should do so by resolution of its board of directors; a certified copy of such resolution must reach this Bank before the polls close. A form for this purpose is also enclosed.
Because banks in Groups 2 and 3 will not participate in this election, this circular is sent to them without forms and for their information only.
John C. Whitehead,
Chairman of the Board.
*Section 4 of the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, reads in part as follows:
"...That whenever any member banks within the same Federal Reserve district are subsidiaries of the same bank holding company within the meaning of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, participation in any such nomination or election by such member banks, including such bank holding company if it is also a member bank, shall be confined to one of such banks, which may be designated for the purpose by such holding company."
Pursuant to the foregoing provision, a nomination by any bank that is a subsidiary of a bank holding company having other subsidiaries in the same voting group cannot be accepted unless there is on file with this Bank evidence that such bank has been so designated. Accordingly, banks affected by the foregoing provision of the law are requested to take prompt action to have the appropriate bank holding company designate, if it has not already designated, one of such banks to participate in this nomination and election.
If such bank holding company does not have on file with this Bank an appropriate resolution either permanently designating one of such banks to participate in nominations or elections of this Bank's directors or setting forth the authority under which such designations will be made from time to time, such bank holding company may wish to file such resolution with this Bank. A form of resolution authorizing officers of bank holding company to make such designations is enclosed.
+ Section 4 of the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, reads in part as follows:
"Class A shall consist of three members, without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, who shall be chosen by and be representative of the stockholding banks....No officer or director of a member bank shall be eligible to serve as a class A director unless nominated and elected by banks which are members of the same group as the member bank of which he is an officer or director."
"Any person who is an officer or director of more than one member bank shall not be eligible for nomination as a class A director except by banks in the same group as the bank having the largest aggregate resources of any of those of which such person is an officer or director."
"Class B shall consist of three members, who shall represent the public and shall be elected without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, or national origin, and with due but not exclusive consideration to the interests of agriculture, common, industry, services, labor, and consumers....No director of class B shall be an officer, director, or employee of any bank."
"No Senator or Representative in Congress shall be a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or an officer or a director of a Federal reserve bank."
[The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has expressed the opinion that is an inappropriate, as a general rule, for directors of Federal Reserve Banks to hold partisan political or public office in the service of the United States, or of any State, Territory, county, district, political subdivision, or municipality thereof, to act as members of political party committees. The System's policy is to avoid any situations that might give the appearance of associating the Reserve Banks with political activities.]
[The Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has resolved that all persons who stand for election as Class A or Class B directors shall be citizens of the United States.]
For Terms of Office Ending December 31, 2000
(Group 1 consists of member banks with capital and surplus
of more than $1 billion, as of October 21, 1997.)
2
3
Robert G. Wilmers
Chairman, President, Chief Executive Officer
Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
Buffalo, N.Y.
George W. Hamlin, IV
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Canandaigua National Bank and Trust Company
Canandaigua, N.Y.
A
A
1998
1999
2
3
William C. Steere, Jr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Pfizer Inc.
New York, N.Y.
Ann M. Fudge
Executive Vice President, Kraft Foods, Inc.,
and President, Coffee and Cereals Division
Tarrytown, N.Y.
B
B
1998
1999
Peter G. Peterson
Chairman
The Blackstone Group
New York, N.Y.
John C. Whitehead (Chairman)
Chairman
AEA Investors Inc.
New York, N.Y.
C
C
1998
1999
