First Interstate Economist Leaves for Position at Fed

First Interstate Bancorp said Tuesday that its chief economist, Jerry L. Jordan, is leaving to become president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Jordan, 50, will be succeeded by A. Lynn Reaser, 44, a vice president and senior economist with the Los Angeles banking company. Reaser, who joined First Interstate in 1974, was also manager of First Interstate’s national and regional economics group, which analyzes and forecasts economic development.

Jordan, a Southern California native, becomes one of 12 district presidents in the Federal Reserve system. The position is an influential one because Jordan will serve this year as a voting member on the Fed’s open market committee--made up of Fed governors and presidents--which makes decisions on growth in the money supply.

The Cleveland Fed’s district includes Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and part of West Virginia. Jordon served as senior vice present and economist for Pittsburgh National Bank in the late 1970s.

A member of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1981 and 1982, he joined First Interstate in 1985. Jordan succeeds W. Lee Hoskins, who resigned to become chief executive of Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio.