Contact: Media Representative 612-204-5261 Date: October 23, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Directors Reappointed at Fed's Helena Branch

MINNEAPOLIS—Emil W. Erhardt, president, Citizens State Bank, Hamilton, Mont., and Sandra M. Stash, Montana Facilities Manager, ARCO, Anaconda, Mont., have been reappointed to two–year terms as directors of the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis by the Minneapolis Board. In addition, William P. Underriner, general manager, Selover Buick, Billings, Mont., has been reappointed to a two-year term by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. Underriner also serves as chairman.

Other Helena Branch directors are Thomas O. Markle, president and CEO of Markle’s Corp., Glasgow, Mont., who serves as deputy chairman, and Richard E. Hart, president and director, Mountain West Bank, Great Falls, Mont.

Branch directors oversee the operations, and review and approve the operating policies of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank’s Helena office to assure that its functions are managed competently and in the public interest. In addition, directors contribute their perspectives on regional economic conditions as part of the Federal Reserve’s monitoring of economic conditions throughout the country and the formulation of monetary policy.

As one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis contributes to a variety of Federal Reserve System functions, including operation of a nationwide payments system, distribution of the nation’s currency and coin, supervision and regulation of member banks and bank holding companies, and serving as a fiscal agent for the U.S. Treasury. Additionally, the president of the Minneapolis Fed serves as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the monetary policymaking arm of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Together with its branch in Helena, Mont., the Minneapolis Fed serves the Ninth Federal Reserve District, which includes Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, 26 counties in northwestern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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