Obama's Federal Reserve's Board of Governors nomination has ties to community banks

The Federal Reserve's Board of Governors will have its first representative with community banking experience since 2013, if President Obama's nomination of Allan R. Landon is approved by the Senate, Binyamin Appelbaum reports for The New York Times.

Allan R. Landon

"Landon’s selection comes after months of pressure by the community banking industry, which is regulated by the Fed and which has argued that the Fed’s seven-member board should include at least one person with relevant experience of that sector," Appelbaum writes.

Landon, a graduate of Iowa State University, spent 18 years working in the Midwest for Ernst & Young auditing and advising community banks, before becoming chief financial officer of First American National Bank in Tennessee, Appelbaum writes. Landon was at the Bank of Hawaii from 2004-2010, and in 2012 he joined with a partner, Frank Reppenhagen, to create Community BanCapital, an investment fund focused on community banks.

While the Senate is now Republican-led and might not be quick to support an Obama nomination, "Landon may be helped by the broad bipartisan support for putting a community banker on the Fed board," Appelbaum writes. "Draft legislation reserving a board seat for such a candidate passed the House last year and has attracted wide backing in the Senate." (Read more)