The chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. The incumbent is the active executive officer of the Board of the Federal Reserve System. The chair presides over the meetings of the board who collectively convene to set American monetary policy.
The chair serves a four-year term after being nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate; the officeholder serves concurrently as a member of the Board of Governors. The chair may serve multiple terms, subject to re-nomination and confirmation each time; William McChesney Martin (1951–1970) was the longest serving chair, with Alan Greenspan (1987–2006) closely second.
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Appointment
As stipulated by the Banking Act of 1935, the chairman is chosen by the president from among the sitting governors to serve four-year terms with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Senate Committee responsible for vetting a Federal Reserve chair nominee is the Senate Committee on Banking.
Duties
By law, at meetings of the board the chair presides, or in the absence of the chair, the vice chair presides. In the absence of the chair and the vice chair, the board elects a member to act as chair pro tempore.
Under the chair's leadership, the Board's responsibilities include analysis of domestic and international financial and economic developments. The board also supervises and regulates the Federal Reserve Banks, exercises responsibility in the nation's payments system, and administers consumer credit protection laws.
By custom, the chair also chairs the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which directs short-term U.S. monetary policy. Although the statute and rules of the FOMC allow it to elect any member as its chair, it has always chosen the chair of the board in practice.
By law, the chair reports twice a year to Congress on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy objectives. The chair of the Federal Reserve also testifies before Congress on numerous other financial issues and meets periodically with the treasury secretary, who is a member of the president's Cabinet.
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.
Salary
The chair of the Federal Reserve is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning the salary for that level (US$246,400, as of April 2024).
List of Fed chairs
Following the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913, the United States secretary of the treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo became responsible for overseeing of the establishment of the Federal Reserve system. He became the ex officio chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and a member of the Reserve Bank Organization Committee (RBOC). Until the Banking Act of 1935 was signed into law on Aug. 23, 1935 and became effective on Feb. 1, 1936, the incumbent treasury secretary had also been the ex officio Fed chair, whilst the de facto active head of the central bank was known as the governor of the Federal Reserve Board. The 1935 Act ended ex-officio membership of the treasury secretary, re-designating the governor as the chairman of the Board of Governors.
Since Alan Greenspan's term beginning in 1987, Fed chairs have largely been economists with a doctorate in economics, with the exception of Jerome Powell and Kevin Warsh, who had each been a lawyer and investment banker before the start of his term. Arthur Burns had been the first Fed chair to have a PhD in economics, although his two successors prior to Greenspan did not. Some economists have argued that a Fed chair ought to have a PhD in economics.
The following is a list of the past and present chairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as well as governors of the Federal Reserve Board prior to the 1935 Act taking effect. A chair serves for a four-year term after appointment, but may be reappointed for several further four-year terms. Since the Federal Reserve was established in 1914, the following people have served as chair.