President Biden is seriously considering Michael Barr, a Treasury Department veteran and an architect of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, as the Fed’s chief banking supervisor, according to people familiar with the matter.
While the president has not yet made a final decision, Barr has emerged as a leading contender for the post, the people said. Biden aides have discussed Barr with lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill, as they try to settle on a nominee who can appease the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic members and win support in a narrowly divided Senate.
Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has long admired Barr’s work on the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown have signaled to the administration that they are comfortable with Barr, should Biden ultimately pick him, according to people familiar with the process.
Spokespeople for both Brown and Warren declined to comment on Barr.
Barr, who holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale, is the dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He has been on the faculty of the university’s law school since 2001. He served in the Treasury during the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. He was part of the Biden transition team that reviewed the Treasury Department.
As a top aide to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he was one of the main authors of Dodd-Frank, a law forged in response to the financial crisis that began in 2008 and notably created the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision, the post for which he is being considered. At Treasury, he also opened the Office of Community Development, expanded the earned income tax credit and helped to design the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. Warren has spoken highly of him in her book, praising him for helping to create a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Barr had been a candidate to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier in the Biden administration, but when word of his potential nomination surfaced last year, some vocal progressives arose in
The administration’s interest in Barr for the Federal Reserve position was reported first by Politico. A White House spokesperson declined to comment until an official announcement is made.
Sarah Bloom Raskin, Biden’s previous choice for vice chair, withdrew from consideration on March 15 after it became clear that she didn’t have the votes for confirmation in the U.S. Senate.
Her prospects evaporated after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a pivotal Democratic vote in the 50-50 Senate, announced he wouldn’t support her.
Because the Fed is charged with monitoring Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and other massive financial entities, the post of vice chair for supervision is seen as the most powerful bank regulator in Washington. In addition to setting rules in arcane areas that go right to lenders’ bottom lines, like balance-sheet liquidity and capital levels, the person in that role would oversee closely watched annual stress tests that review bank safety.
It’s been filled just once, with Randal Quarles, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, from 2017 to 2021.
— With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and John Harney.
