December 26, 2001

CONTACTS:	Elizabeth Masten Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco	(415) 974-2133
	Richard Decker Belvedere Partners LLC	(415) 434-1236

DECKER AND MCNALLY ELECTED TO SAN FRANCISCO FED

SAN FRANCISCO, December 26, 2001 - Member banks in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District have elected Bay Area banker, Richard W. Decker, Jr., and Sacramento-based labor leader, Jack McNally, to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for three-year terms beginning January 1, 2002.

Mr. Decker, 57, is Chairman and Co-Founder of Belvedere Capital Partners LLC of San Francisco. He was elected by the intermediate-sized member banks in the Fed District's nine western states.

Mr. McNally, 63, is Principal of JKM Consulting. From 1980 until August 2001, he served as Business Manager of IBEW Local 1245, the largest utility local union in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO. Mr. McNally was re-elected by the Fed's largest member banks to represent non-banking interests in the District, after completing the final year of an unexpired term.

A banker for more than thirty years, Mr. Decker began his career with Chemical Bank, New York in 1970. He joined County Bank of Santa Cruz, California in 1972, and later served in various capacities with First Interstate Bank of California, culminating with the position of Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff and Chief Administrative Officer reporting to the President. In 1988, he was appointed President and CEO of WestAmerica Bank of Marin, and then he joined The Contrarian Group, an investment company, as a partner. In 1993, Mr. Decker co-founded Independent Bancorp of Arizona/Caliber Bank in Phoenix where he served as Vice Chairman and Director until 1994. In 1994, he co-founded Belvedere Capital Partners, where he serves as Chairman of the Board, as well as Chairman of California Community Bancshares and Cerritos Valley Bancorp, and director of Bank of Orange County and Placer Sierra Bank.

A native Californian, Mr. McNally has a forty-year affiliation with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company where he first apprenticed as a lineman. In 1968, he was appointed a business representative on the business manager's staff of Local 1245, a position he held until 1980 and his election to Business Manager. Mr. McNally serves as Chairman of the California Coalition of Utility Employees, as a Vice President and Executive Council Member of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, and a director of the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, the California Foundation on the Economy and the Environment, Delta Dental Plan of California, and the Consumer Federation of California. He is a past chairman of Delta Dental Plan of California and the California Coalition of Utility Employees, and former president of the California State Association of Electrical Workers, among other leadership positions.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions in the nine western states through the head office in San Francisco and branch offices at Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator, administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S. government. Head office directors are responsible for overseeing Reserve Bank operations, selecting the Reserve Bank president, providing details for economic trends in their regions, and advising the Bank's president and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on the general direction of monetary policy by establishing the Bank's discount rates.