New York Fed names replacement for longtime CEO

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most powerful and influential regional branch of the US central bank, named John C. Williams as its next CEO and President on Tuesday.

Williams, who has led the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve since 2011, will start on June 18, after the New York bank’s longtime head William Dudley steps down, the New York Fed announced.

The New York Fed is the branch that’s largely in charge of overseeing Wall Street banks and investigating wrongdoing, and is the only permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which decides interest rates.

William, 55, is seen as middle-of-the-road when it comes to raising interest rates, and hasn’t pushed this year for raising rates more than the three times that the Fed has previously signaled.

“I look forward to joining the talented team of New York Fed colleagues and to carrying out the unique responsibilities entrusted to us to protect the economic prosperity and financial stability of the United States’ economy,” Williams said in a statement.

Unlike his predecessor, Williams has never worked on Wall Street, and has spent most of his career in the Federal Reserve system — replacing former Chair Janet Yellen when she was elevated in 2011.

But progressives and Democrats had pushed for the New York branch to install a CEO who wasn’t a white man for the first time since it was founded in 1914.

The NY Fed, however, defended its decision in a statement.

“After a thorough process, my fellow search committee members and I felt that John best fulfilled the criteria we’d identified as well as the feedback we’d received through our public outreach efforts,” Sara Horowitz, Founder of the Freelancers Union, Chair of the New York Fed’s Board of Directors and co-chair of the search committee, said in a statement.