Randal Quarles, the vice chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve, won confirmation for a second term at the central bank Tuesday, as the Senate voted 66 to 33 to give him a 14-year re-up as a member of the Board of Governors.
The Senate originally installed Quarles as the top financial regulatory manager in October, but the term of the board slot he was confirmed to expired in January. Tuesday’s vote means that he could stay in office until 2032, although Fed officials rarely fill out their terms. Quarles’ term as vice chairman expires sooner, in 2021.
Since taking office, Quarles has presided over the Fed’s efforts to revise the post-crisis financial regulations, to ease their burdens on banks. Most prominently, he’s helped facilitate a rewrite of the Volcker Rule, the Dodd-Frank regulation meant to prohibit banks from speculating with deposits backed by the federal government.
His actions have met with relief and applause from the financial sector, but they’ve also hardened the opposition from liberal Democrats.
“His record at the Fed has confirmed all our worst fears,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Yet, despite the liberal discontent, Quarles improved his support, winning one more vote for confirmation than he had in October.
Prior to joining the Fed, Quarles was an investment manager, and previously worked in the Treasury during the presidency of George W. Bush.
