New York Fed Names New Leadership for Top Markets Jobs
December 12 2019 - 4:40PM
Dow Jones News
By Nick Timiraos
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Thursday that Lorie
Logan, a longtime executive at the bank, will become the manager of
the central bank's asset portfolio, while Daleep Singh, an
economist who previously served as the Treasury Department, will
run the bank's markets group.
Ms. Logan will oversee the central bank's $4 trillion securities
portfolio and open market operations, implementing Fed officials'
interest rate decisions. Mr. Singh will handle the markets group's
operations and technology.
The two positions were created to assume the responsibilities
previously handled by one person, Simon Potter, who left the bank
in June after New York Fed President John Williams decided to
install new leaders.
The leadership shuffle has unfolded during a period of intense
operational engineering to stem money-market volatility that
erupted in mid-September and interfered with officials' ability to
control very short-term interest rates.
Ms. Logan served as the deputy to Mr. Potter and has worked at
the New York Fed since 1999. She played a prominent role in
developing and implementing the Fed's post-crisis-era policies,
including the expansion of the $4 trillion asset portfolio and the
tools used to help unwind that support when the Fed lifted interest
rates from near zero earlier this decade.
Mr. Singh is currently chief North American economist at SPX
Capital, a Brazilian investment fund. He served in the Treasury
Department's international division and markets room from 2011 to
2016, when he was named acting assistant secretary for financial
markets, a position he served in until the end of the Obama
administration in 2017. Before that, he worked at Goldman Sachs
Group Inc.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the head of the New York Fed's
markets desk has been the most high-profile staff job at the
central bank. The people who have held the role were highly
influential in helping officials create and employ new policy
tools.
The markets desk implements Fed policy by buying and selling
securities in trades with private financial firms, and the officer
briefs top officials at each policy meeting on the state of the
markets and the working of central-bank policies.
Ms. Logan has been the most senior staffer involved in shaping
Fed policy makers' understanding of September's money-market
volatility and designing the options for how they would respond to
it.
Interest rates in very short-term lending markets rose sharply
in mid-September due to shortages of funds that banks were willing
to lend.
The Fed responded by injecting billions of dollars into markets
to pull rates down to its target range. The central bank is facing
another big test through year's end as regulatory deadlines could
create new funding strains.
Ms. Logan assumes her new role Jan. 1. Mr. Singh takes his post
in February.
Wall Street veterans and former Fed officials said that failing
to select Ms. Logan for the job after Mr. Potter and another
longtime executive were ousted earlier this year would have further
damaged low morale at the bank.
Insiders said Ms. Logan had been groomed to succeed Mr. Potter
and said she is highly regarded within the bank for her experience
and dedication.
"It is an honor to be entrusted with this work," she said
Thursday in a statement.
The New York Fed also said Christopher Armstrong would serve as
head of the financial services group. He replaces Richard Dzina, a
longtime executive who was ousted by Mr. Williams. Mr. Armstrong
has worked at the New York Fed for more than 10 years, the bank
said.
Write to Nick Timiraos at nick.timiraos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 12, 2019 17:25 ET (22:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.