(Reuters) -One of the Federal Reserve's five female regional bank presidents could replace U.S. central bank chief Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday - an intriguing comment given that none of the 12 Fed regional bank presidents have signaled they are on board with the immediate cut in interest rates demanded by President Donald Trump.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who supports cutting rates at the central bank's policy-setting meeting next week, along with White House
economic advisor Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and Bessent himself, have been reported to be on the short list for the top Fed job.
Asked if Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, once a reliable central bank hawk but more recently a proponent of cutting rates, was a potential choice for the job, Bessent told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, "I'm not going to name names, but there are candidates, as I said, on the Board (of Governors); several female regional bank presidents; and there are fantastic women outside the Fed."
Here is a brief look at each of the five female Fed regional bank chiefs. Two of them declined to comment for this story and the others did not respond to requests for comment.
SUSAN COLLINS
Collins has a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with expertise in international macroeconomics. A former Harvard professor and provost at the University of Michigan, she has run the Boston Fed since July 2022 and is eligible to stay in the job through July 2032. "An 'actively patient' approach to monetary policy remains appropriate at this time," she said on July 15. Collins has said it will probably be appropriate to cut rates later this year as the effects of the Trump administration's policies on the economy come into sharper focus.
MARY DALY
Daly has a PhD in economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. She was a labor economist who ran the research department at the San Francisco Fed until she took the top job there in October 2018. She is eligible to stay in the job through September 2028. Daly says two rate cuts are "reasonable" this year, in line with the median rate forecast of the Fed's 19 policymakers. "I wouldn't want to see more weakness in the labor market ... I really wouldn't want to see that, which is why you can't wait forever" on cutting rates, she said on July 17.
BETH HAMMACK
Hammack has a bachelor's degree in quantitative economics and history from Stanford University. She had a 30-year career at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a member of its management committee, until August 2024 when she became president of the Cleveland Fed. She is eligible to stay in the job through January 2037. "I don't see a need to really reduce (interest rates) unless we see material weakening on the labor side," she said on July 14.
LORIE LOGAN
Logan has a master's degree in public administration from Columbia University. Before becoming president of the Dallas Fed in August 2022, she was an executive vice president at the New York Fed where she managed the central bank's balance sheet and implemented its monetary policy. She is eligible to stay in the job through February 2038. "My base case is that we'll need to keep interest rates modestly restrictive for some time," she said on July 15.
ANNA PAULSON
Paulson received a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and has focused on financial stability and markets. She ran the Chicago Fed's research department until becoming president of the Philadelphia Fed on July 1. She has not made any comments on monetary policy since that time. In late 2023, as many economists forecast that rising unemployment would be the price to pay for more progress on inflation, she argued that the economy could prove resilient as the Fed continued to focus on inflation.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao)
