A former top Federal Reserve policy advisor said on Monday that bank executives should be barred from serving on the boards of the Fed's 12 regional outposts, Fed policymakers should serve just seven years, and monetary policy should be subject to an official annual review.

The proposals from Dartmouth College Professor Andrew Levin represent substantial change for the Federal Reserve.

Banks currently appoint six of the nine members of regional Fed bank boards, policymakers often serve a decade or more before retiring, and the details of monetary policymaking have always been a closely guarded secret, with transcripts of meetings released only after a five-year interval.

Levin, who advised Fed Chair Janet Yellen when she was Fed vice chair, released the proposals via the Fed Up Coalition, a network of community organizations and labor unions calling for change to the U.S. central bank. It is unclear how they will be received by other Fed critics who have called for even more sweeping changes, or the 101-year-old institution itself, which has largely resisted reform proposals.

The Fed has come under increasing fire in recent months from both Democrats and Republicans for what they say is a lack of accountability and transparency, with lawmakers and presidential candidates calling for a wide range of limits on the Fed's powers.

In response, some current and former Fed officials have begun to call for steps to placate the U.S. central bank's harshest critics.

Levin on Monday also called for the process of appointing Fed bank presidents to be more transparent and to involve the public. Currently Fed bank presidents are chosen in a closed-door process run by each bank's board and approved by the Washington-based Fed Board. 

Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli

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