“Hours before the Senate approved a far-reaching overhaul of Wall Street regulations on Thursday, President Obama’s three nominees to the board of the Federal Reserve said they were prepared to help the central bank handle its vastly expanded duties to ensure financial stability and oversee financial institutions, The New York Times’s Sewell Chan reported.

“We must work together, and in cooperation with central banks and governments around the world, to mitigate systemic risk in the financial and payments systems so that our country never again suffers such a devastating episode of financial instability,” Janet L. Yellen, the nominee for vice chairwoman of the Fed, testified to the Senate banking committee.

If Ms. Yellen and the two other nominees are confirmed, which appears increasingly likely, they would provide the Fed with its first full complement on the board of governors since 2006. The appointments come at a time when the Fed’s traditional mandate — keeping inflation low and stable while promoting employment — is being enlarged to include financial stability and oversight for all “systemically important” financial institutions, not just big banks.” Read more.

“Fed Nominees Support Expanded Duties”
The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

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