Robert Kaplan, Eric Rosengren, the regional presidents of Federal Reserve, announced Thursday that they would sell individual stock holdings to address ethical concerns about trading in 2020.
According to statements made Thursday, the Fed officials would sell all of their stocks by September 30th and invest the proceeds in passive investments.
Rosengren, president and CEO of the Boston Fed stated that while my personal savings and investments have been in compliance with Federal Reserve's ethical rules, I have taken the following steps to eliminate any appearance of conflict of interest.
They also promised not to trade stocks while serving as Fed presidents.
These announcements are made after Fed officials were subject to scrutiny regarding investment activity during a period when central bank actions supported financial markets during the Covid pandemic.
Kaplan, Dallas Fed President, raised eyebrows by sharing a financial disclosure form that revealed a number million-dollar trades last year in individual stocks including Amazon, Apple and Delta Airlines. According to the disclosure, Kaplan had 32 stock, fund, or other asset holdings. 27 of these were valued at more than $1million at the end 2020.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the form.
Rosengren and Kaplan are presidents of two Fed regional banks, which span the country. Each regional bank president serves as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets rates policy.
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