Atlanta Fed’s President to Retire After 42 Years
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Jack Guynn said Thursday that he would retire Oct. 1 after 42 years at the bank and 10 years at its helm.
Guynn, 63, is a voter on the Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee and has been seen by some as relatively hawkish on the need for further policy tightening to keep inflation at bay.
Guynn’s decision creates a third vacancy on the Federal Open Market Committee. The Fed said Wednesday that Gov. Mark W. Olson would step down June 30, after accepting the job of chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The Fed has yet to fill the opening created by the departure of Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson in April. Both Olson and Ferguson were voters.
Atlanta Fed First Vice President Patrick Barron will assume Guynn’s responsibilities from Oct. 1 while a national search is conducted for a new president, unless someone is appointed by then, the bank said.
Guynn took over Jan. 1, 1996, after 12 years as the Atlanta Fed’s first vice president, replacing Robert Forrestal, who had held the same post before his own promotion.
The search will be conducted by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, made up of businesspeople from the region.
Board Chairman David Ratcliffe said there was no predisposition to making another internal appointment.
“We’re basically looking for someone who understands the economy and monetary policy, who understands the financial services industry and who understands how to run a complex operation like the Atlanta Fed,” he told Reuters.
“Our primary objective is to get the best person we can. Time is not a factor,” said Ratcliffe, who is chairman and chief executive of energy firm Southern Co.
The Atlanta Fed employs more than 2,000 people and is one of 12 regional Fed banks that help decide monetary policy.
The Atlanta Fed also regulates and supervises banks and the payment system in Alabama, Florida and Georgia and in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Barron and Robert Eisenbeis, who is the Atlanta Fed’s head of research, are natural candidates for the top job. But it was not clear whether either would apply. Barron is 60 and Eisenbeis is 65. Both men declined to comment.
Guynn, who is scheduled to take part in three more Federal Open Market Committee meetings before Oct. 1, has never dissented in a committee vote. But he has been seen as one of the more hawkish members of the committee during its current rate-raising campaign.
He made repeated warnings about speculative pressures in the housing market in 2004, before the Fed began raising the federal funds rate in June from an ultra-low 1%, and was consistently stern about the dangers of letting inflation get out of hand.
On June 7, Guynn said core inflation might have already breached the upper limit of what was acceptable to the U.S. central bank. The remarks reinforced expectations that the Fed would raise its benchmark interest rate by another quarter of a percentage point to 5.25% at its next meeting, starting Wednesday.
