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Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Flag of the United States Federal Reserve.svg
Flag of the Federal Reserve System
Seal of the United States Federal Reserve Board.svg
Seal of the Board of Governors
Jerome H. Powell, Federal Reserve Chair.jpg
Incumbent
Jerome Powell

since February 5, 2018
United States Federal Reserve System
Style Mr. Chairman
Member of Board of Governors
Open Market Committee
Reports to United States Congress
Seat Eccles Building
Washington, D.C.
Appointer President
with Senate advice and consent
Term length Four years, renewable (as Chair)
14 years, non-renewable (as Governor)
Constituting instrument Federal Reserve Act
Formation August 10, 1914; 110 years ago (1914-08-10)
First holder Charles Sumner Hamlin
Deputy Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve
Salary Executive Schedule, Level I

The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chairman presides at meetings of the Board.

The chairman 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 chairman may serve multiple terms, pending a new nomination and confirmation at the end of each term; William McChesney Martin (1951-1970) was the longest serving chair, with Alan Greenspan (1987-2006) a close second. The president may not have the legal authority to dismiss a chairman before the end of a term, although this assumption has never been tested in court.

The current chairman is Jerome Powell, who was sworn in on February 5, 2018. He was nominated to the position by President Donald Trump on November 2, 2017, and later confirmed by the Senate. He was subsequently nominated to a second term by President Joe Biden, later confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on May 23, 2022.

Appointment process

VCY CG CB CV cent grp 121613 0517 02844 (13896600480)
Federal Reserve Chairs (left to right): Janet Yellen, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and Paul Volcker. Photo taken 1 May 2014, when Yellen was Chair.

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 of the Fed chairman

By law, at meetings of the Board the chairman shall preside, and, in his absence, the vice chairman shall preside. In the absence of the chairman and the vice chairman, the Board shall elect a member to act as chairman pro tempore.

Under the chairman'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, one of the chairman's most important duties is to serve as the chair of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which is critical in setting short-term U.S. monetary policy. However, the chair of the FOMC is elected at the first meeting of each year, and while the chair of the Board of Governors has always been chosen there is no legal obligation for this to be the case.

By law, the chairman reports twice a year to Congress on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy objectives. He or she 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

Chair of the Federal Reserve is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule, thus earning the salary prescribed for that level (US$246,400, as of April 2024).

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. Since the Federal Reserve was established in 1914, the following people have served as chair.

# Portrait Name
(birth–death)
Term of office Tenure length Appointed by
Start of term End of term
- William-gibbs-mcadoo-desk.jpg McAdoo, William GibbsWilliam Gibbs McAdoo
(1863–1941)
December 23, 1913 August 10, 1914 230 days ex officio
1 HAMLIN, CHARLES S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 1913- LCCN2016864808 (cropped).jpg Hamlin, CharlesCharles Hamlin
(1861–1938)
August 10, 1914 August 9, 1916 1 year, 365 days Woodrow Wilson
2 W. P. G. Harding LCCN2016858906 (retouched).jpg Harding, WilliamWilliam Harding
(1864–1930)
August 10, 1916 August 9, 1922 5 years, 364 days
3 Daniel R. Crissinger cropped.jpg Crissinger, DanielDaniel Crissinger
(1860–1942)
May 1, 1923 September 15, 1927 4 years, 137 days Warren G. Harding
4 Chair Roy A Young 140501.jpg Young, RoyRoy Young
(1882–1960)
October 4, 1927 August 31, 1930 2 years, 331 days Calvin Coolidge
5 Portrait of Eugene Meyer.jpg Meyer, EugeneEugene Meyer
(1875–1959)
September 16, 1930 May 10, 1933 2 years, 236 days Herbert Hoover
6 Eugene R Black 1934 (cropped).jpg Black, EugeneEugene Black
(1873–1934)
May 19, 1933 August 15, 1934 1 year, 88 days Franklin D. Roosevelt
7 Marriner Eccles 1939 (cropped).jpg Eccles, MarrinerMarriner Eccles
(1890–1977)
November 15, 1934 January 31, 1948 13 years, 77 days
8 00035 DUP (14083184875).jpg McCabe, ThomasThomas McCabe
(1893–1982)
April 15, 1948 March 31, 1951 2 years, 350 days Harry S. Truman
9 William McChesney Martin jr.jpg Martin, BillBill Martin
(1906–1998)
April 2, 1951 January 31, 1970 18 years, 304 days Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
10 ArthurBurns USArmyPhoto 1955.jpg Burns, ArthurArthur Burns
(1904–1987)
February 1, 1970 January 31, 1978 7 years, 364 days Richard Nixon
11 G. William Miller.jpg Miller, WilliamWilliam Miller
(1925–2006)
March 8, 1978 August 6, 1979 1 year, 151 days Jimmy Carter
12 Paulvolcker.jpg Volcker, PaulPaul Volcker
(1927–2019)
August 6, 1979 August 11, 1987 8 years, 5 days Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
13 Alan Greenspan color photo portrait.jpg Greenspan, AlanAlan Greenspan
(born 1926)
August 11, 1987 January 31, 2006 18 years, 173 days Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
14 Ben Bernanke official portrait.jpg Bernanke, BenBen Bernanke
(born 1953)
February 1, 2006 January 31, 2014 7 years, 364 days George W. Bush
Barack Obama
15 Janet Yellen official Federal Reserve portrait.jpg Yellen, JanetJanet Yellen
(born 1946)
February 3, 2014 February 3, 2018 4 years, 0 days Barack Obama
16 Jerome H. Powell, Federal Reserve Chair.jpg Powell, JayJay Powell
(born 1953)
February 5, 2018 Incumbent 6 years, 323 days Donald Trump
Joe Biden

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Presidente del Sistema de la Reserva Federal para niños

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