Twelve banks sit in the room. Four of them vote.

The Board’s own explainer, “The Fed Explained — Who We Are,” refuses the singular. The System is the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., plus twelve Federal Reserve Banks and their twenty-four branches. The Banks are the operating arms. They examine institutions, move currency, and keep the Treasury’s transaction account. The Board supervises them. They are not branch offices of a single bank with one vault.

The Federal Open Market Committee is the third body, and the seating is the part people skip. The Board’s page says the FOMC is a twelve-person group that meets at least eight times a year. The twelve votes are the seven governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents on one-year rotations. The other seven presidents attend and take part in the deliberations. They do not cast that meeting’s vote. The Desk that buys and sells for the System Open Market Account sits at the New York Reserve Bank, which is why that president’s vote does not rotate.

Governors serve staggered fourteen-year terms, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Chairman and Vice Chair may be appointed for additional four-year terms. None of that is a rate decision. It is the floor plan. The September 16 statement is the rate decision. Read that page for the number. Read this page for who is even allowed to say yes.

Notice Nearby is a paid public-notice register. This seating chart is a publisher-desk brief of the Board’s structure page. It is not Legal Publication and it is not a newspaper account of a meeting.