WASHINGTON (AP) — Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic said Friday that many of his financial trades and investments in the past five years inadvertently violated the central bank’s ethics rules, and he has revised all his financial disclosures since becoming president in 2017.
Bostic said the trades were made by investment managers that he did not directly oversee and he was unaware of the transactions. He said he has since changed his investment approach to remain within the rules.
Bostic’s disclosure comes just a year after a trading controversy engulfed the Federal Reserve. Last fall, two bank presidents resigned after their frequent stock trading at the outset of the pandemic attracted criticism because it occurred at the same time the Fed was taking steps to stabilize financial markets and the economy.
Since then, investments by Fed officials have come under tight scrutiny, given that policymakers like Bostic participate in interest rate decisions by the Fed that can cause wild swings in financial markets.
Bostic said the managers had made financial transactions during periods surrounding Fed meetings, when members of the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee are not supposed to trade. The advisers also purchased investments in amounts above limits set by the Fed’s ethics rules.