Robert Kaplan, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, announced his retirement Monday following uproar around stock trades he made last year.
Kaplan’s announcement came hours after the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren, who also traded securities during the pandemic crisis, said he would retire nearly a year ahead of his planned June 2022 retirement.
“Unfortunately, the recent focus on my financial disclosure risks becoming a distraction to the Federal Reserve’s execution of that vital work. For that reason, I have decided to retire as President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, effective Friday, October 8, 2021,” Kaplan said. “During my tenure, I have adhered to all Federal Reserve ethical standards and policies. My securities investing activities and disclosures met Bank compliance rules and standards.”
Kaplan, 64, was appointed president and chief executive of the Dallas Fed in 2015. Prior to joining the Fed, he was a faculty member and dean of Harvard Business School. Kaplan spent most of his career at Goldman Sachs, where he was named a partner in 1990 and served as the global head of the investment banking and investment management units.
In early September 2021, financial disclosure forms showed that Kaplan had in multiple million-dollar trades of individual stocks. He said that all of the trades were compliant with the rules of the Federal Reserve and took place outside of the blackout dates in which Fed officials are banned from trading.
The trades drew fire from critics. The watchdog group Better Markets called on the Fed to fire Kaplan and Rosengren if they did not resign on their own. Kaplan had earlier said he would sell all his individual stocks and invest his multi-million financial portfolio in broad index funds and cash.
“We are grateful for Rob’s six years of service as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and as a valued colleague in the FOMC. He has been a passionate and forceful public voice on a wide range of issues, including the critical value of early childhood education and literacy,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said.
Kaplan was born in Prairie Village, Kansas.
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