Barr Confirmed As Fed's Newest Governor As Inflation Roars

Michael Barr, a former top official at the U.S. Treasury, won Senate confirmation Wednesday to the Federal Reserve Board as its newest member, and he is expected to also be confirmed later in the day as the central bank's top Wall Street regulator.

Senators voted 66-28 to confirm him as a Fed governor and immediately started in on a procedural vote to advance his nomination to be the Fed's vice chair of supervision. A confirmation vote on that post, the Fed's top banking cop job, is expected later in the day.

The Fed is raising interest rates sharply to bring down inflation that rose 9.1%, a fresh 40-year high. Barr will join as the seventh and last member of the Fed's Board who, along with the Fed's 12 regional bank presidents, decide every six weeks exactly how much policy tightening to deliver.

It is unclear if Barr could be sworn in in time for the Fed's next policy-setting meeting at the end of this month.

If, as expeted, he is also confirmed as vice chair of supervision, Barr's to-do list will likely include revisiting rules for banks that were eased under his predecessor, Randal Quarles. The Fed has been without a point person on regulation since Quarles, a Trump appointee, left the role last October after four years.

Barr is also expected to use the powerful role overseeing the country's largest lenders to step up efforts on other issues dear to the Biden administration such as climate change risk, as well as addressing other rapidly evolving areas like fintech and cryptocurrencies.