Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock applauds rules ban of stock trades by Federal Reserve officials
File Photo: Tara Dyer
From staff reports
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. the Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions, applauded the Federal Open Market Committee’s new rules concerning the investment and trading activity of senior officials.
These new rules would ban senior Federal Reserve officials, their spouses, and their minor children from investing in individual corporate stocks or funds that focus on specific industries entering derivative contracts, purchasing securities on margins, or shorting a stock. It would also ban holding investments in individual bonds, agency securities, cryptocurrencies, commodities, or foreign currencies.
“Public officials shouldn’t use their positions for personal gain — ever,” Warnock said. “Hard-working Georgia families need to know that Federal Reserve officials are making decisions in the public interest, not in the interest of their pocketbooks. I thank the Federal Open Market Committee for heeding my calls to ban officials from participating in stock trading. We need a fair and impartial Federal Reserve to protect every Georgian and ensure we have an economy that works for all Americans.”
On Sept. 28, 2021, Warnock pressed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on reports that Regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents were actively trading private investments while the bank was intervening in the markets. He secured a commitment from Powell to review the trades at issue and revisit the rules and regulations governing trading by Federal Reserve officials.
Following the hearing, on Oct. 27, 2021, Warnock introduced the Ban Conflicted Trading at the Fed Act with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown and other colleagues to prohibit senior Federal Reserve officials from trading individual stocks.
A champion for ethics reform across the federal government, Warnock also introduced legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress and their senior staff. He also cosponsored bipartisan legislation prohibiting members of Congress from holding stocks and legislation requiring members of Congress to hold their investments in blind trusts, which would mean that legislators would have no knowledge or control over their investments, preventing any holding from causing a potential conflict of interest
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