WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Friday named former Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin as Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Banking Oversight, and black economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson as US Central Bank Board of Governors.
These appointments, if confirmed by the Senate, would complement the ranks of the Fed’s Board of Governors, which normally has seven members, and would bring more diversity to the powerful American institution.
“We are at a stage of historic economic progress and unique economic challenges as we work to advance our recovery,” Joe Biden said in a statement.
“This is a time that demands strong, independent leadership from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. That is why I am proud to appoint Sarah Bloom Raskin, Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson, who will bring a wide range of knowledge, experience and expertise to the Board of Governors,” added the US President.
Sarah Bloom Raskin, 60, was a member of the Fed’s board of governors from 2010 to 2014 and deputy treasury secretary from 2014 to 2017 under President Obama.
She would succeed Randal Quarles, who left the post when his term expired last October.
Lisa Cook, professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University, would be the first black woman to hold the post of governor of the Fed.
Philip Jefferson, a professor and administrator at Davidson College in North Carolina, would be only the fourth black man to serve there and the first in more than 15 years.
If confirmed by the upper house of Congress, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors would be made up of four women, which would also be a first.
Currently, it has only five members and no representatives of ethnic minorities. But this figure will drop to four after the resignation of the vice-president, Richard Clarida, this Friday.
(Report Kanishka Singh and Chris Gallagher, French version Laetitia Volga and Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault and Sophie Louet)