Atlanta Fed president Bostic to retire in February, opening seat on key committee

WASHINGTON (AP) — Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, will retire at the end of his current term in February, opening up a new seat on the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee at a time that President Donald Trump is seeking to exert more control over the central bank.

As president of one of the Fed’s 12 regional banks, Bostic, 59, serves on the 19-member committee that meets eight times a year to decide whether to change a key short-term interest rate that influences borrowing costs throughout the economy. Only 12 of the 19 participants vote on rates at each meeting. The regional Fed presidents rotate and the Atlanta Fed’s president will next vote in 2027.

Bostic’s replacement will be selected by the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, not the Trump administration. The Fed’s board of governors will vote on whether to approve Bostic’s replacement. Three of the seven members of the board were appointed by Trump.

The regional Fed banks were set up specifically to ensure that voices outside Washington and New York would have a say in the central bank’s decisions.

Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed this year for not cutting interest rates as quickly as he would prefer. The Fed reduced its key rate by a quarter-point at its September and October meetings, but Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference last month that another cut in December is not a “foregone conclusion.”