Contact: Rosie Cataldo 612-204-5261 Date: December 19, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Minneapolis Fed Announces 2001
Board of Director Changes for Helena Branch

MINNEAPOLIS—Marilyn F. Wessel, dean and director, Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, has been newly appointed by the board of directors of the Minneapolis Fed to serve a two-year term as director of the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Thomas O. Markle, president and chief executive officer, Markle's Inc., Glasgow, has been re-appointed to a two-year term as director of the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Markle will serve as chairman for 2001. William P. Underriner, general manager, Selover Buick Inc., Billings, who will serve as vice-chairman in 2001, has been re-appointed to a two-year term as director of the Helena Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis by the board of directors of the Minneapolis Fed.

Other Helena Branch directors are: Emil W. Erhardt, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Citizens State Bank, Hamilton; and Richard E. Hart, president, Mountain West Bank, Great Falls.

Branch directors oversee the operations, and review and approve the operating policies of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank's Helena Branch 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 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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