Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said his personal financial managers made trades that ran afoul of central bank rules, revelations that have led Chair Jerome Powell to open a probe in a new chapter of the ethics scandal that engulfed the Fed last year.
Bostic said in a statement Friday that he was not aware of the specific trades or timing of the transactions, which were made by a third party manager in accounts where he did not have ability to direct trades. He detailed the transactions in corrected disclosure forms posted to the Atlanta Fed’s website.
“I take very seriously my responsibility to be transparent about my financial transactions and to avoid any actual or perceived conflicts of interest,” Bostic said in the statement.
He said that he had “come to learn, however, that while I did not have the ability to direct trades in these accounts, the transactions directed by third parties, not just the assets themselves, should have been listed on my annual financial disclosure forms.”
A Fed spokeswoman said Powell has asked the IG to review Bostic’s disclosures and “we look forward to the results of their work and will accept and take appropriate actions based on their findings.”
The revelations add a fresh chapter to a Fed ethics scandal that erupted last year.
The Fed overhauled its ethics rules in 2021 after revelations about unusual trading activity during 2020 by several senior officials as the central bank slashed interest rates to nearly zero and unleashed emergency lending programs to protect the economy as the pandemic spread.
Then-Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan and his Boston colleague Eric Rosengren both announced their early retirement following the revelations, with Rosengren citing ill health. Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida also came under scrutiny for his transaction on the eve of a Fed statement signaling it was getting ready to calm market panic. He resigned Jan. 14, 2022, ahead of the expiration of his term as governor on Jan. 31.
