Michelle Bowman was sworn in as the Federal Reserve's top regulator Monday afternoon, opening the door for her to begin her regulatory reform push at the central bank in earnest.
The event comes less than a week after the Senate voted to
Fed Chair Jerome Powell administered the oath of office to Bowman in a ceremony that took place in the press briefing room of the Federal Reserve Board headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Bowman has been overseeing the Fed's regulatory and supervisory function in a semi-formal capacity since March. After Trump nominated her to the vice chair role, she was named chair of the Fed's internal committee on supervision and regulation. Now that she has been congressionally confirmed and sworn in, she can introduce new regulatory proposals to the board.
Top priorities for Bowman include reforming capital requirements — beginning with an overhaul of the supplementary leverage ratio — and refocusing bank examinations on core financial issues rather than issues of process or management. In a
"Conditions constantly evolve in the banking system, and so too must the regulatory and supervisory framework," she said. "We must be proactive and responsive in the face of emerging risks and ensure that the framework operates in an efficient and effective manner."
Bowman's ascent to vice chair comes after nearly seven years of service on the Fed board. Trump nominated her to an unfinished governor seat in 2018 and nominated her to a full, 14-year term in 2020. She was confirmed on a bipartisan basis in both those instances, but secured her regulatory oversight post by a partisan 48-46 vote.
During the past four years, she carved out a role for herself as the leading voice of dissent to many Biden era bank policy reforms and supervisory practices. Through a series of speeches — many of which were delivered directly to banking groups — Bowman made the case against the so-called Basel III endgame, a sweeping risk-weighted capital reform proposal championed by Barr and Biden-appointed leaders at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Her dedication to regulatory tailoring and warnings about supervisory overreach, along with her constant engagement, earned Bowman many
A graduate of the University of Kansas and Washburn University School of Law, Bowman began her career in Washington, working in the office of former Sen. Bob Dole and on several committees in the U.S. House of Representatives. She also spent time working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Supervision under President George W. Bush.
For several years she led a government and public affairs consultancy in London before returning to her home state in 2010.
