WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that he will return to being a Fed governor and will try to support the central bank’s prospective next chair, Kevin Warsh, and not try to act as a “shadow chair” who attempts to wield outsized influence over monetary policy.
“That’s just something I would never do, you know, the shadow chair thing,” Powell told a news conference, where he said he would remain on the board for an unspecified period after his chair term ends in May, keeping a “low profile”.
He said that during his six years as a governor before becoming chair, he understands the role and the difficulty that the chair has in bringing the board to consensus.
“I don’t want to add to that unnecessarily. And that means trying support the direction the chair wants to go, if you can,” Powell said. “If you can’t, you can’t. That’s the way it’s always worked there.”
(Reporting by David Lawder)
