Richard A. Jones has been named to replace Edmund Willingham as general counsel for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta upon Willingham's retirement in February 2001, according to Jack Guynn, president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Fed. Jones will join the Atlanta Fed as vice president and deputy general counsel in October 2000.
Jones has an extensive background in banking law. Since 1994 he has served as regional counsel for the Atlanta region of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which includes Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. In this capacity, he oversees the provision of legal services pertaining to the examination and supervision of state-chartered banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System. Prior to joining the FDIC, Jones was a senior regional attorney for five years at the Office of Thrift Supervision, where he played a lead role in numerous enforcement matters and acquisitions of troubled thrifts. He began his career as an attorney with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, D.C., and, after a year, became a senior attorney with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.
Jones earned a bachelor's degree, with honors, in 1981 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. He received his juris doctor degree in 1984 from George Washington University's National Law Center in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and a member-at-large of the board of directors and the immediate past chair of the corporate counsel section of the Atlanta Bar Association.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia and sections of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. As part of the nation's central banking system, the Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous commercial banks and provides a variety of financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. government.