GLASGOW: A decision on whether Jerome Powell will serve a second term as the Federal Reserve chair or be replaced will come soon, US President Joe Biden said.

Speaking at a press conference; following the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Biden declined to discuss the decision over who will lead the US central bank, but said he would be “making those announcements fairly quickly”.

He said he has “a lot of good choices but I’m not going to speculate now” on who he will pick to run the institution charged with steering the US monetary policy as the world’s largest economy bounces back from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump appointed Powell, who took office in 2018 for a four-year term as the Fed chair that expires in February.

Biden, who must pick a Fed chair from among the board members, also has to fill an open position, decide whether to reappoint vice chair Richard Clarida, whose term expires as the governor at the end of January, and select a governor to serve as the vice chair in-charge of the bank supervision.

The central bank chief presided over a series of rate hikes prior to the March 2020 start of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the central bank swiftly slashed its interest rate to zero.

The Fed also rolled out stimulus policies, including massive monthly asset purchases, and on Wednesday following its two-day policy meeting is expected to announce it will start to taper those purchases.

While Powell, a Republican, has won praise from some of the Biden’s fellow Democrats, some from the party’s progressive wing have called on the president to name a comparatively liberal candidate who will do more to tighten oversight of banks and address climate change and systemic racism.