Chair of the Federal Reserve

Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Incumbent
Janet Yellen
since February 1, 2014
Appointer President of the United States
Formation August 10, 1914 (1914-08-10)
First holder Charles Sumner Hamlin
Salary $201,700[1] (2014)
Website Bios

The Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the central banking system of the United States. The position is known colloquially as "Chair of the Fed" or "Fed Chair". The chair is the "active executive officer"[2] of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

The chair is chosen by the President of the United States from among the members of the Board of Governors; and serves for four-year-terms after appointment. A chair may be appointed for several consecutive terms. William Martin was the longest serving chair, holding the position from 1951 to 1970. The current chair is Janet Yellen, the first woman to hold the position.[3] She began her term on February 1, 2014, and previously served as the Vice-Chair from 2010 to 2014. The current term will end on or about February 1, 2018.

1935 reorganization

Section 203 of the Banking Act of 1935 changed the name of the "Federal Reserve Board" to the "Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System."[4] The directors' salaries were significantly lower (at $12,000 when first appointed in 1914[5]) and their terms of office were much shorter prior to 1935. In effect, the Federal Reserve Board members in Washington, D.C., were significantly less powerful than the presidents of the regional Federal Reserve Banks prior to 1935.[6]

In the 1935 Act, the district heads had their titles changed to "President" (e.g., "President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis").

Thus, Marriner Eccles was the first actual "Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board". The others prior to 1935 were "Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve System", with much more circumscribed power.

Appointment process

As stipulated by the Banking Act of 1935, the President of the United States appoints the seven members of the Board of Governors; they must then be confirmed by the Senate and serve fourteen year terms.[1][7]

The nominees for chair and vice-chair may be chosen by the President from among the sitting Governors for four-year terms; these appointments are also subject to Senate confirmation.[8] By law, the chair reports twice a year to Congress on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy objectives. He or she also testifies before Congress on numerous other issues and meets periodically with the Treasury Secretary.

Conflict of interest law

The law applicable to the Chair and all other members of the Board provides (in part):

No member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shall be an officer or director of any bank, banking institution, trust company, or Federal Reserve bank or hold stock in any bank, banking institution, or trust company; and before entering upon his duties as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System he shall certify under oath that he has complied with this requirement, and such certification shall be filed with the secretary of the Board.[9]

List of Fed Chairs

The following is a list of past and present Chairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. A chair serves for a four-year term after appointment, but may be reappointed for several consecutive four-year terms. As of 2014, there have been a total of fifteen Fed Chairs.[10]

№ Name (chair)[11][12]
(birth–death)		 Photo Term of office Appointed by
(term)
Start of term End of term
1 Charles Sumner Hamlin
(1861–1938)		 August 10, 1914 August 10, 1916 Woodrow Wilson

(1913–1921)
2 William P. G. Harding
(1864–1930)		 August 10, 1916 August 9, 1922
3 Daniel R. Crissinger
(1860–1942)		 May 1, 1923 September 15, 1927 Warren G. Harding

(1921–1923)
4 Roy A. Young
(1882–1960)		 October 4, 1927 August 31, 1930 Calvin Coolidge

(1923–1929)
5 Eugene Meyer
(1875–1959)		 September 16, 1930 May 10, 1933 Herbert Hoover

(1929–1933)
6 Eugene Robert Black
(1873–1934)		 May 19, 1933 August 15, 1934 Franklin D. Roosevelt

(1933–1945)
7 Marriner S. Eccles
(1890–1977)		 November 15, 1934 February 3, 1948[13]
8 Thomas B. McCabe
(1893–1982)		 April 15, 1948 April 2, 1951 Harry S. Truman

(1945–1953)
9 William M. Martin
(1906–1998)		 April 2, 1951 February 1, 1970
10 Arthur F. Burns
(1904–1987)		 February 1, 1970 January 31, 1978 Richard Nixon

(1969–1974)
11 G. William Miller
(1925–2006)		 March 8, 1978 August 6, 1979 Jimmy Carter

(1977–1981)
12 Paul Volcker
(1927–)		 August 6, 1979 August 11, 1987
13 Alan Greenspan
(1926–)		 August 11, 1987 January 31, 2006[14] Ronald Reagan

(1981–1989)
14 Ben Bernanke
(1953–)		 February 1, 2006 January 31, 2014 George W. Bush

(2001–2009)
15 Janet Yellen
(1946–)		 February 1, 2014[15] Incumbent Barack Obama

(2009–2017)

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen Makes Less Than 113 Other Staffers At The Fed". The Huffington Post. December 16, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  2. ↑ see 12 U.S.C. § 242
  3. ↑ "Senate Confirms Yellen as Fed Chairwoman". New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ Sec. 203, Banking Act of 1935, Public Law no. 305, 49 Stat. 684, 704 (Aug. 23, 1935).
  5. ↑ "The Reserve Board Nominations". The Independent. July 20, 1914. Retrieved August 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ Meltzer, Allan H. (2003). A history of the Federal Reserve: Volume 1, 1913-1951. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  7. ↑ "The Structure of the Federal Reserve System". Federalreserve.gov. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ Federal Reserve (January 16, 2009). "Board of Governors FAQ". Federal Reserve. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
  9. ↑ 12 U.S.C. § 244
  10. ↑ "Federal Reserve Bank Presidents". The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
  11. ↑ "Chairs". Membership of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1914–present. The Federal Reserve Board. February 3, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  12. ↑ Chairs were designated Governors before August 23, 1935, and were then designated Chairmen until approximately 2014, when Yellen became the first female chair.
  13. ↑ Served as Chair pro tempore from February 3, 1948 to April 15, 1948.
  14. ↑ Served as Chair pro tempore from March 3, 1996 to June 20, 1996.
  15. ↑ "Econoday Economic Report: FYI January 30, 2014". Bloomberg.econoday.com. February 1, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2015.

References

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