Yes, bankers should serve {as directors of Federal Reserve Banks}. They provide valuable information about the economy, credit conditions and the payments system. There are high standards that apply to Reserve Bank directors, and when an individual no longer meets these standards, the director resigns voluntarily to allow someone who does meet the criteria to serve.

"As a president, I get a lot of incredibly useful information from the bank directors that serve on our boards and I think it would be a loss to me in my policy role to lose that valuable source of information," Kocherlakota said in response to audience questions following a speech at the South Dakota School of Mining and Technology

Discussing a "perception problem" with CEO's of major banks serving on the board of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Geithner said, "the American people should understand that.... those banks and the members of the board play no role in supervision. They have no role in the writing of the rules, and they play no role in decisions the Fed makes about how to respond to a financial crisis. Their role is a much more limited role, and the role is to help provide a perspective on what’s happening in the economy as a whole. But I agree with you that the, that perception is a problem. And it’s worth trying to figure out how to fix that."