Federal Reserve to ban FOMC, senior staff from owning individual stock

Federal Reserve officials can no longer get rich when serving at the United States central bank.

According to sweeping new rules announced on Thursday, the Eccles Building prohibited trading in individual stocks and bonds by top officials.

Under the new measures, Fed members will be limited to owning only mutual funds, in which they will only be permitted to hold for a year and must request permission to buy or sell.

Moreover, future investments must be confined to diversified assets, including, once, again mutual funds.

These rules will apply to those who sit on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and senior staff.

“These tough new rules raise the bar high in order to assure the public we serve that all of our senior officials maintain a single-minded focus on the public mission of the Federal Reserve,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a statement.

This comes soon after top Fed officials were caught making multi-million-dollar traders in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic that were influenced by Fed monetary policymaking.