December 5, 2006

Nordstrom Elected and Wilcox Reelected to the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Board of Directors

San Francisco, December 5, 2006 – The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco announced today that Blake W. Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom, Inc. has been elected, and Kenneth P. Wilcox, president and chief executive officer of SVB Financial Group has been reelected to the San Francisco Fed’s board of directors. Their terms begin January 1, 2007 and run through December 31, 2009.

Blake W. Nordstrom

Mr. Nordstrom is president of Nordstrom, Inc., the Seattle-based fashion retailer. He held numerous positions within the company before being named co-president in 1995. He has been president of Nordstrom, Inc. since August 2000. Mr. Nordstrom is a member of the Downtown Seattle Association and is the co-chair for the United Way of King County, Alexis de Tocqueville Society. Prior to joining the San Francisco Fed’s board, Mr. Nordstrom served on the Seattle branch board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2005 through 2006.

Mr. Wilcox is president and chief executive officer of SVB Financial Group, a global, diversified financial services company based in Santa Clara. He joined the company’s commercial banking subsidiary SVB Silicon Valley Bank in 1990, when he co-founded its

Kenneth P. Wilcox

East Coast Technology Division. He was promoted to chief banking officer in 1997, and became president and chief executive officer in 2001 of Silicon Valley Bank and Silicon Valley Bancshares, now known as SVB Financial Group. Mr. Wilcox is a current director for the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.

The balance of the Board includes: David K.Y. Tang, (chairman) Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, T. Gary Rogers, (deputy chairman) Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc., Karla S. Chambers, Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc., Richard W. Decker, Jr., Belvedere Capital Partners LLC, Jack McNally, JKM Consulting, Charles H. Smith, AT&T West, and Candace H. Wiest, West Valley National Bank (in organization).

Each of the nation’s 12 Federal Reserve Banks has a nine-member board of directors, three of whom are appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System with the remaining six elected by the member banks in the Twelfth Federal Reserve District. Directors are drawn from the banking community as well as sectors representing business, industry, agriculture, services, labor and consumers. The board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco contributes to the formulation of U.S. monetary policy through the industry and regional economic information they provide the bank’s president. Reserve bank directors also recommend changes in the discount rate.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, with branch offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Portland, and a cash processing office in Phoenix, provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions throughout the nine western states. 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.

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