Janet Yellen to leave Fed when Jerome Powell takes over as chair
WASHINGTON - Janet Yellen said Monday she will leave the Federal Reserve bank's board after Jerome Powell replaces her as chairman.
Yellen's four-year term as Fed chair ends on Feb. 3, but she could have chosen to remain on the seven-member Fed board. Her term as a board member would not have ended until January 2024.
"As I prepare to leave the board, I am gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability and continue supporting the economic aspirations of American families and businesses," she wrote in a Nov. 20 resignation letter to President Donald Trump.
Yellen, 71, was picked by President Obama to lead the Fed in 2013. She also serves as head of the Federal Open Market Committee, the bank's interest-rate setting panel.
Mr. Trump tapped Powell, 64, a Fed board governor and former lawyer and investment banker, in November. If confirmed by lawmakers, as expected, Powell would be the first non-economist to lead the Fed since 1987, when Paul Volcker left the body.
The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to meet Nov. 28 to consider Powell's nomination.
Called the "Republican Yellen," Powell, in his fifth year on the Fed's board, has been a reliable backer of her slow tempo of rate increases, as well as her gradual approach to decreasing the central bank's $4.4 trillion hoard of bonds.
