Current economic conditions warrant a “serious discussion” of whether to raise interest rates at next week’s Fed meeting, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank president Dennis Lockhart said on Monday in remarks that may raise the likelihood of Fed action. As one of 12 banks of the central banking system, the Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy and provides payment services to financial institutions and the USA government. The Atlanta Fed president won’t be a voting Federal Open Market Committee member until 2018.
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“Dennis has promoted better understanding of monetary policy’s role in the economy through extensive interaction with business and community leaders, who in turn have provided him with valuable information on what is happening in the economy and the financial system”, Fanning said in a statement. Executive search firm Spencer Stuart will help with the effort. Yellen, herself the first woman to lead the Fed, has been grilled by Congress on the selection of regional bank presidents and has expressed a commitment to diversity.
It said there is no timetable for finding a successor, but it plans on October 6 to hold a webcast describing the coming search process. Marie Gooding, the Atlanta bank’s vice president, will serve as interim president if a successor is not found by February 28. Before joining the Atlanta Fed, he served as a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and at Johns Hopkins.
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The search for a new bank president likely will be a lively one in light of increased outside pressure to be transparent about who gets such jobs, amid concerns that Fed leadership is heavily made up of white men. He was president of Heller Financial, an worldwide investment firm, and held leadership positions at private equity firms Small Enterprise Assistance Funds and Zephyr Management.
