Biden Will Nominate Three New Fed Officials

President Biden plans to nominate three new Federal Reserve officials as he seeks to remake the central bank at a critical economic moment, according to people familiar with the matter.

If confirmed, his picks would make for the most diverse Fed leadership team in the institution’s history.

The White House plans to nominate Lisa Cook, an economist at Michigan State University who has researched racial disparities and labor markets, and Philip Jefferson, an economist and administrator at Davidson College, to open seats the Fed’s Board of Governors. Both Ms. Cook and Mr. Jefferson are Black.

Mr. Biden will also nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin to serve as the Fed’s new vice chair for supervision, a job created to help police the nation’s largest banks after the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr. Biden had previously nominated Jerome H. Powell for a second stint as Fed chair and Lael Brainard, now a governor, as vice chair of the central bank. If they are confirmed to their posts, the seven-person Fed board would have four women, one Black man and two white men — the most diverse leadership team in the Fed’s roughly 108 years of existence.

The administration had promised to make the Fed — historically dominated by white men — look more like the public it served, and prominent lawmakers have pushed for a focus on tougher financial regulation. The picks seek to deliver along those dimensions.

Ms. Raskin, who served as a Fed governor during the Obama administration, has a track record of arguing for more forceful bank oversight and is likely to usher in an era of stricter rules for the titans of global finance, a priority of some powerful congressional Democrats.

If confirmed, Ms. Raskin would be in charge of determining the need for new financial regulations, enacting existing rules and running large and globally important banks through their annual health checks, which are commonly called stress tests.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.