Warsh considering reducing number of Fed meetings, NYT reports

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh is considering reducing the frequency of the central bank’s scheduled policy meetings, the New York Times reported Friday.

Warsh raised the proposal to change the frequency of meetings at this week’s gathering of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, the paper added. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.

Currently, Fed policymakers meet eight times a year for a two-day gathering, after which they announce their policy decision. A reduction in the number of meetings would mark a significant shift for the US central bank, coming at a moment when investors have criticized Warsh’s attempt to limit guidance to markets on the direction of interest rates and as the Fed faces mounting pressure to do more to curb inflation.

Fed policymakers voted 9-3 on Wednesday to hold interest rates steady. The rate decision was widely expected, but investors balked when Warsh declined to explain the decision or say he would support raising rates should inflation fail to slow.

Read more: Fed’s Warsh Rebuked by Investors Craving a Real Inflation Fight

Warsh, who took the helm of the Fed in May, has signaled he intends to bring other changes, including potentially reducing the number of press conferences he holds after policy decisions. He also announced the creation of five task forces to consider possible changes to how the Fed conducts monetary policy, in areas ranging from communications to data and the Fed’s balance sheet.

At his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Warsh was asked if he was committed to holding an FOMC meeting at least once every eight weeks.

“I believe the statute requires a minimum of four meetings, but four is not enough,” Warsh said in response. “So having more meetings than that is appropriate. But I’ve not even begun to look at the meeting schedules for 2027 and beyond.”

The Fed has already scheduled its meetings for the remainder of 2026 — with gatherings set for September, October and December — and for 2027. “Each meeting date is tentative until confirmed at the meeting immediately preceding it,” according to the website, a disclaimer that pre-dates Warsh’s appointment as Fed chairman.

Under the FOMC’s rules of procedure, it meets at least four times a year in Washington, if not more.

“Meetings are held upon the call of the Chair of the Board or at the request of any three members of the Committee,” according to the rules of procedure.

The Fed has also periodically held unscheduled meetings during times of economic and market turmoil, such as the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

The Fed’s rate-setting committee includes 12 members: the seven officials on the Fed’s Board of Governors in Washington, including Warsh; the New York Fed president, who serves a the FOMC vice chair; and four of the 12 presidents of the Fed’s regional banks, who rotate turns as voting members each year.