Yellen to exit Fed when new chief takes over

WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen will leave the US central bank when her successor takes the chair of the rate-setting body, foregoing seven years left on her term as a member of the Fed’s board of governors.

She submitted her resignation Monday to President Donald Trump, who named current board member Jerome Powell on Nov 2 to become Fed chairman.

Yellen’s four-year appointment as chairwoman expires Feb 3.

Powell, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled for Nov 28, must still receive confirmation from the full Senate before taking office. Trump’s conservative Republicans hold 52 seats in the 100-member upper chamber.

A member of the Fed since 2012, Powell, 64, a lawyer by training and former investment banker, would be the first non-economist to lead the central bank since 1979.

Yellen, the first woman to lead the Fed, has overseen a very gradual withdrawal of extraordinary monetary policies implemented in the years after the 2007-09 US recession.

Last month, the Fed began trimming its record US$4.5 trillion (RM18.7 trillion) bond holdings, piled up since 2008 in a bid to force investment into the private sector.

Yellen is the first Fed chief since William Miller (1978-79), who left the Fed to become president Jimmy Carter’s Treasury secretary, not to serve two terms.

She was on the White House’s list of five finalists before Trump announced his choice, when he called her “absolutely a spectacular person” who did a “terrific job” as Fed chief. – dpa