Jeffrey Lacker, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, resigned today, effective immediately. Lacker acknowledged a role in a leak of confidential monetary policymaking information to an economic research firm in 2012. The leak has been under investigation by federal law enforcement since 2015.
“The Federal Reserve places a high priority on safeguarding information,” said the Richmond Fed in a statement. “We expect every employee to comply with all relevant policies and procedures, as well as our standards of conduct. Employees must review and acknowledge our policies annually. Once our bank’s board of directors learned of the outcome of the government investigations, they took appropriate actions.”
Lacker had previously announced that he would retire by October of this year, and a search was already under way for his successor. The Richmond Fed’s first VP, Mark Mullinix, will serve as the bank’s acting president.
