Pierre Jay

Who was Pierre Jay?

Pierre Jay was the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He graduated from Yale University in 1892, and was a member of Skull and Bones, one of the best known of the secret societies based at Yale University. In 1908, as Massachusetts banking commissioner, he, along with Bostonian business man and philanthropist Edward Filene, helped organize public hearings on creating credit union legislation in Massachusetts, leading to the passage of the Massachusetts Credit Union Act in 1909. This legislation was the first to enable the formation of credit unions in the United States. Jay also became the first-ever chairman of the New York Federal Reserve in 1913 after its formation.