New York Fed taps new president, triggers diversity concerns

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Tuesday named John C. Williams as its next president and CEO. Williams is a Wall Street insider who has been serving as the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco since 2011. The selection of Williams comes amid calls from Democrats and progressive groups who want more gender and racial diversity in the Fed’s top leadership.

What they're saying: Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown called Williams "a distinguished and respected economist," but argue that Federal Reserve System officials failed to show that "diversity is important." On the other hand, Sara Horowitz, chair of the New York Fed’s Board of Directors and co-chair of the search committee, said "a thorough process" was done and concluded that Williams "best fulfilled the criteria we’d identified as well as the feedback we’d received through our public outreach efforts.”