White House to announce nominee for Fed
board, source says
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[January 03, 2015]
By Emily Stephenson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House
will soon announce a nominee to the Federal Reserve Board, a person
familiar with the matter said on Friday, in a move that would begin the
process of filling one of the Fed's two empty seats in Washington.
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The person said the White House will announce a nominee next week
or the following week, adding that the nominee will likely have a
community banking background.
The move comes as the new U.S. Congress convenes next week, with
Republicans in control of both chambers after wresting the Senate
from Democrats in November. The Fed is expected to come under
heavier political pressure this year, from both Republicans and
Democrats, as it pulls back from its unprecedented economic stimulus
and begins raising interest rates.
The U.S. central bank has five Fed governors in place on the
seven-member board. Board members are appointed by the president,
subject to Senate confirmation.
Not one of the five governors has experience in the community
banking industry, which has led to speculation that the White House
would name someone from the sector as a nominee.
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Reuters reported in April that Diana Preston, a lawyer who left a
post at the American Bankers Association; Rebeca Romero Rainey, who
runs a small bank in New Mexico; and Ann Marie Mehlum, who headed an
Oregon-based bank before joining a federal small-business agency,
were among the Fed board candidates the White House was considering.
Former Treasury official Michael Barr's name also surfaced as a
possible Fed board candidate.
But the White House did not move on any of those names and attention
on the two empty Fed seats faded in the second half of last year. It
resurfaced as Congress was wrapping up in December.
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A decision by the U.S. Senate last month to set aside a terrorism
insurance bill until 2015 killed a provision requiring that one seat
on the Fed board be dedicated to a person with community banking
experience. But the provision is likely to come up again because it
has strong support in both the House of Representatives and the
Senate.
Many U.S. lawmakers worry that big Wall Street firms hold undue sway
at the U.S. central bank and see adding a community banker as a way
to temper that.
A Federal Reserve spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter. A
White House official who did not want to be named said the president
did not have any immediate personnel announcements to make.
(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Additional reporting by Michael
Flaherty in Boston and Julia Edwards in Honolulu; Editing by
Mohammad Zargham)
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