© Archyde.com/JOSHUA ROBERTS
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, DC
Feb 18 (Archyde.com) – The Federal Reserve on Friday adopted a new set of investment and trading restrictions for its top officials, banning a range of activities in the wake of an ethics scandal that has shaken confidence in the integrity of the central bank. United States.
The goal is to “ensure public confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the Committee’s work,” the Fed said in a statement. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee is its monetary policy-setting body.
Fed officials will be prohibited from buying sector funds, conducting short sales or buying securities on account, as well as holding cryptocurrencies, commodities or foreign exchange.
The restrictions come on top of rules first outlined last October that prevent Federal Reserve officials from buying individual stocks or participating in derivatives, or owning individual bonds and agency-backed securities.
The rules require policy makers and covered staff to give 45 days notice and approval for any transaction, and prohibit any trading during periods of market stress and a slightly longer period around regular monetary policy meetings.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)