Jerome Powell tipped as next Federal Reserve chairman

President Donald Trump is expected to name Jerome Powell today as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, the world’s most powerful central banker.

Two senior officials told the Associated Press that Powell will replace Janet Yellen, who was appointed head of the Federal Reserve by former president Barack Obama in 2014. Reuters and the Wall Street Journal also named Powell as the successor to Yellen, whose term ends in January.

Federal Governor Jerome “Jay” Powell, a former private-equity executive, has in the past supported Yellen’s cautious approach to raising interest rates. Should he replace her, his leadership would be “likely to combine continuity on interest-rate policy with perhaps a lighter touch on financial regulation”, says The Wall Street Journal says.

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“A centrist on monetary policy, he is known as a pragmatic and down-to-earth official with private sector and government experience,” the Financial Times says. “A trained lawyer and former partner at private equity firm Carlyle, he also served in the Treasury under former president George H. W. Bush in the 1990s.”

Powell would be the first Federal Reserve leader in almost 40 years to lack an advanced degree in economics, AP says. The website adds that he might be “marginally more favorable toward easing some of the stricter financial rules” introduced following the 2008 financial crisis than Yellen.