The Federal Reserve is set to cut the number of interest-rate decisions it hands down each year to six from eight, with the new schedule expected to be phased in starting in 2027, according to central bank chief Kevin Warsh.

The Fed will still hold eight policy gatherings annually, but beginning next year one of those meetings will be devoted to discussing "broad monetary policy strategy" without a rate vote or the publication of a policy statement, Warsh said on Wednesday. That figure will probably rise to two of the Federal Open Market Committee's eight meetings in 2028, he added.

"We believe eight meetings per year is the right number for the FOMC," Warsh told reporters, speaking after Fed officials voted 10-2 to keep rates unchanged despite lingering price pressures and indications of a robust economy.

Warsh also said the Fed would release further specifics about the adjustments.

"Getting policy right involves assessing near-term developments at timely, regular and information-rich intervals," Warsh said. "But it's equally important we reserve time and space, as an intellectually diverse group, for strategic deliberations, for thinking anew about big questions, looking out over longer time horizons, focusing — as I say — on the left side of the decimal point."

Kevin Flanagan, head of investment strategy at WisdomTree, said the bond market was "questioning why have eight meetings if one of them is not going to have a public announcement."

Yields on US Treasuries were broadly steady after the Fed's rate decision landed as expected, with the two-year rate trading around 4.76%. But longer-dated yields climbed in reaction to Warsh's remarks on next year's vote changes, Flanagan said, partly on the view that having one less live FOMC meeting could breed more market volatility and uncertainty.

The new Fed chief, who assumed leadership of the US central bank in May, first floated the idea of paring the Fed's annual number of policy meetings to six from eight at the July gathering. He argued at the time that reducing meeting frequency would let more information and data pile up between them, according to the meeting minutes.

The FOMC has already mapped out its meetings for 2027. "Each meeting date is tentative until confirmed at the meeting immediately preceding it," according to the website, a disclaimer that predates Warsh's appointment as Fed chairman.

Warsh has proposed changes to central bank meeting schedules before.

In 2014, he carried out a review of the Bank of England's transparency practices and procedures, known as the Warsh Review, that led the UK central bank to cut its annual gatherings to eight from 12.

The European Central Bank in 2015 separately trimmed its monetary policy meeting frequency to every six weeks, replacing the previous practice of holding them on the first working Thursday of each month.