Banker Robert Jones Said to Be on Trump List for Fed Governor
The Federal Board currently has three vacancies among its seven seats.
(Bloomberg) -- Robert G. Jones, the chairman of a bank in U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s home state, is under White House consideration among other candidates to be nominated as a Federal Reserve governor, according to two people familiar with the selection process.
Jones is the chairman and chief executive of Evansville, Indiana-based Old National Bancorp, a publicly traded company. He served as a director on the board of the St. Louis Fed from 2008 to 2013, and on the Federal Advisory Council in 2007, a group of regional bankers that briefs the Fed Board in Washington on the economy and banking.
An Old National spokeswomen declined to comment. In congressional testimony in September, Jones called Old National “a fairly typical community bank” headquartered on Main Street in Evansville.
There are currently three Fed Board vacancies and Jones is among candidates being considered for the seat that requires small-bank representation, one the sources said. It emerged on Friday that Carnegie Mellon University economist Marvin Goodfriend is a finalist for one of the other openings, and Randal Quarles, a senior Treasury official in the administration of President George W. Bush, is being eyed for the third position.
Old National had about $15 billion in assets in the first quarter.
He said bankers play a “limited, yet crucial” role on Fed boards, acting as managers, auditors, and strategic planners, while supplying “a vibrant and important regional voice on issues.”
Old National, as it not uncommon for banks, has made contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. Its political action committee spent $272,000 in the 2016 election cycle, up from $175,000 two years earlier, according to campaign-finance data compiled by OpenSecrets.org.
--With assistance from Jeanna Smialek and Craig Torres
To contact the reporters on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.net, Christopher Condon in Washington at ccondon4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alister Bull at abull7@bloomberg.net, Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net.