Fed officials retire in wake of disclosures

In a rare moment of ethical controversy for the Federal Reserve, two top officials resigned Monday in the wake of revelations about their financial trading that exposed potential shortcomings in the Fed’s rules on investments.

Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said he would step down this week for health reasons. Meanwhile, Robert Kaplan, the president of the Dallas Fed, said he would resign Oct.

8 to avoid becoming a “distraction” from the Fed’s broader mission.

The two officials’ financial disclosures sparked criticism from government watchdogs after they revealed extensive stock trading in 2020, when the Fed was spending trillions of dollars stabilizing financial markets and boosting the economy. Though the investments by Rosengren and Kaplan were permitted under the Fed’s rules, they raised at least the appearance of conflicts of interest, which Fed policy discourages.