Educational Assistance

Both the Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors

recognize the importance of the training and education of System employees in maintaining the vitality of System operations. Accordingly, policies and practices have been put in place to provide educational assistance under certain conditions. Although specific rules, procedures, and forms for gaining educational assistance vary with the administration of the particular institution, policies generally require the following criteria. 1. The employee must have served for a minimum period and be in good standing in order to apply.

2. Courses generally must be job-related.

3. Minimum specific grades must be obtained in order to gain reimbursement.

4. Fees for courses must be in line with community practice. 5. All courses must be taken from an accredited academic or technical educational institution.

For the Reserve Banks in particular in-service training of employees through American Institute of Banking courses is recognized as good management policy, allowing employees to gain upward mobility skills. Consequently, tuition reimbursement under this program is similar to that for college programs.

Membership in Associations

The policies of each Reserve Bank and the Board of

Governors require that memberships in associations must be only for essential System benefits. Anticipated attendance, dues cost, conflicts of interest and/or appearances of such conflicts are reviewed in judging appropriateness of memberships. Memberships are not permitted to assume a "perquisite" or

"status" connotation.

Expenditures for membership dues are limited to those

for memberships in

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1. organizations whose purpose and activities are directly related to the business affairs of the System either by assisting personnel in the performance of their duties or by assisting the System in carrying out official programs or policies, and

2. organizations that, as a part of membership benefits, issue publications directly related to the business affairs of the System or are of informational benefit to System personnel in the performance of their duties.

Personal memberships in professional or technical associations are considered improper except when institutional memberships are not available and membership is considered an essential System benefit, or when a membership fee is a necessary cost directly related to the training of an employee.

At the Federal Reserve Banks, expenditures for a membership in a social or service group are considered improper unless it can be clearly demonstrated that the System should be

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activities will make an important direct contribution to the

conduct of the System's affairs. The Board of Governors will not pay for such memberships in any case.

It might be noted that the policy regarding Reserve

Bank memberships has been revised in recent months to stress that only those deemed essential should be Reserve Bank funded. As a

result, a significant reduction in the number of memberships is expected.

1 1 Salaries increased by $8.5 million or 10.3 percent due to the merit based annual salary increase ($4.2 million), the effect of positions added in 1992 ($2.6 million) and 1993 ($1.0 million), and positions added for the Office of Inspector General (OIG), $0.7 million. The new positions were primarily for changes mandated by the FDIC Improvement Act (FDICIA), increased emphasis on monitoring and enforcing the Community Reinvestment and Home Mortgage Disclosure Acts, and the impact on the OIG of the failed bank review provisions in FDICIA.

2 The retirement increase of 9.3 percent was tied to the increase in salaries described in footnote number 1.

3 The insurance increase was also associated with the increase in the staffing. The implementation of the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard Number 106, Employers' Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pensions, was another