4  BIS Review 72/2010  diminished the scope for the Ministry of Finance to influence central bank decisions, thus strengthening the Bank of Japan’s autonomy in setting monetary policy. Although the Federal Reserve was established as an independent central bank in 1913, its effective degree of independence has gradually increased over time.
Initially, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency sat on the Board; they were removed when the current structure of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) was introduced with the Banking Act of 1935.