Atlanta Fed President disclosed Friday that some of his financial transactions violated the Federal Open Market Committee guideline and his financial disclosures contained some inaccuracies.
Bostic said his assets were held in managed accounts that neither he nor his personal investment advisor have the ability to direct. Some trades took place, without his knowledge, during FOMC blackout periods or financial stress periods, he said. In addition, his holdings of U.S. Treasury funds in 2021 exceeded limits set by the FOMC's trading and investing rules.
As a result, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has asked the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to review the matter. The Atlanta Fed's board and its chief ethics officer, which have reviewed the documents and discussed the issue with Bostic, accepted his explanation for the issues.
"My board colleagues and I have confidence in President Bostic's explanation that he did not seek to profit from any FOMC-related knowledge," said Elizabeth A. Smith, chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in a statement.
"I want to be clear: at no time did I knowingly authorize or complete a financial transaction based on nonpublic information or with any intent to conceal or sidestep my obligations of transparent and accountable reporting," Bostic said in a statement.
Along with the statement, Bostic submitted corrected disclosure forms for each year since he became Atlanta Fed president in 2017.
Note that the Office of the Inspector General is independent from the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. An OIG spokesperson said the office is "aware of the matter and will conduct an independent and comprehensive investigation" and has no further comment.
In February, the Fed adopted stricter rules for trading by its policymaking officials after disclosure of some senior officials' trading during the pandemic drew criticism. In the aftermath, two district bank heads left their jobs a year ago and a vice chair resigned a couple of weeks earlier than the end of his term.
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