Chair of the Federal Reserve facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Flag of the Federal Reserve System
Seal of the Board of Governors
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

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
-		McAdoo, William GibbsWilliam Gibbs McAdoo (1863–1941)	December 23, 1913	August 10, 1914	230 days	ex officio
1		Hamlin, CharlesCharles Hamlin (1861–1938)	August 10, 1914	August 9, 1916	1 year, 365 days	Woodrow Wilson
2		Harding, WilliamWilliam Harding (1864–1930)	August 10, 1916	August 9, 1922	5 years, 364 days
3		Crissinger, DanielDaniel Crissinger (1860–1942)	May 1, 1923	September 15, 1927	4 years, 137 days	Warren G. Harding
4		Young, RoyRoy Young (1882–1960)	October 4, 1927	August 31, 1930	2 years, 331 days	Calvin Coolidge
5		Meyer, EugeneEugene Meyer (1875–1959)	September 16, 1930	May 10, 1933	2 years, 236 days	Herbert Hoover
6		Black, EugeneEugene Black (1873–1934)	May 19, 1933	August 15, 1934	1 year, 88 days	Franklin D. Roosevelt
7		Eccles, MarrinerMarriner Eccles (1890–1977)	November 15, 1934	January 31, 1948	13 years, 77 days
8		McCabe, ThomasThomas McCabe (1893–1982)	April 15, 1948	March 31, 1951	2 years, 350 days	Harry S. Truman
9		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		Burns, ArthurArthur Burns (1904–1987)	February 1, 1970	January 31, 1978	7 years, 364 days	Richard Nixon
11		Miller, WilliamWilliam Miller (1925–2006)	March 8, 1978	August 6, 1979	1 year, 151 days	Jimmy Carter
12		Volcker, PaulPaul Volcker (1927–2019)	August 6, 1979	August 11, 1987	8 years, 5 days	Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
13		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		Bernanke, BenBen Bernanke (born 1953)	February 1, 2006	January 31, 2014	7 years, 364 days	George W. Bush Barack Obama
15		Yellen, JanetJanet Yellen (born 1946)	February 3, 2014	February 3, 2018	4 years, 0 days	Barack Obama
16		Powell, JayJay Powell (born 1953)	February 5, 2018	Incumbent	6 years, 324 days	Donald Trump Joe Biden

See also

In Spanish: Presidente del Sistema de la Reserva Federal para niños

• History of central banking in the United States