Former SEC, Fed Officials Considered by Biden for Treasury Posts

(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Joe Biden’s team is considering former Federal Reserve official Nellie Liang and ex-Securities and Exchange Commission member Robert Jackson for key economic-policy positions, including at the Treasury Department, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jackson, who’s also a candidate to head the SEC, is being looked at for a Treasury position such as general counsel or potentially undersecretary for domestic finance, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Liang -- an expert on financial stability who worked at the Fed with then-central bank chief Janet Yellen, Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary -- could join the department as a counselor or an undersecretary, or may get another future economic-related appointment, the people said.

Yellen’s team is still in the early stages of making decisions, and no job offers have been made, the people said. Few interviews have taken place.

A spokesperson for the Biden transition team declined to comment. Jackson and Liang didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Liang may be picked by Biden to be the Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance.

Jackson, a political independent who served in a Democratic seat at Wall Street’s main regulator for two years through early 2020, is currently a law professor at New York University.

At the SEC, he at times led opposition to policies pushed by former Chairman Jay Clayton, including a sweeping overhaul of conduct standards for brokers and investment advisers. At the same time, he and Clayton -- also a political independent -- worked together to approve enforcement actions in the face of objections from the commission’s two Republicans.

Liang, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where Yellen has also been a fellow since leaving the Fed, led a division at the central bank in charge of financial stability policy and research for six years. Liang at the time worked to implement provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and other rules aimed at making the financial system safer.

President Donald Trump nominated Liang to the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2018 but she withdrew from consideration in 2019 after failing to get support from Republican lawmakers.