1430 ET - For good reason, Fed policy decisions are split among Washington-based and regional officials who reflect diverse geographic interests, Fed governor Christopher Waller says in a speech in Washington. But the Fed system could grow more efficient if back-office operations are streamlined, he argues. Functions like IT, HR and accounting exhibit unnecessary duplication across the Fed's 12 reserve banks and the Fed should consider consolidating them, Waller argues. He says that if an outside consultant were designing the system from scratch, functions that don't need to be local would be "concentrated in a small number of operations centers located in lower-cost cities or those that have a comparative labor skills advantage." The Fed is in its policy-communications blackout ahead of the April 28-29 meeting, but officials are still permitted to speak on non-monetary topics. (matt.grossman@wsj.com; @mattgrossman)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2026 14:30 ET (18:30 GMT)
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