Trump’s Pick for Fed’s Top Regulator Expected to Be Friendly to Wall Street

A red baseball cap sits above Michelle Bowman’s filing cabinet in her office at the US Federal Reserve in Washington. It’s emblazoned with the words “make community banks great again.” The TV in her office is tuned to Fox News, and the self-described workaholic has a sticky note on her door asking visitors to knock loudly because the door is heavy.

Already a Fed governor, Bowman will become one of the central bank’s key leaders, in charge of banking regulation. The Senate Banking Committee voted along party lines to advance her nomination as vice chair for supervision, and the full Republican-controlled chamber gave her its nod on Wednesday. The industry has praised Bowman’s nomination, highlighting her drive to scale back a massive bank-capital proposal that it says will hurt lending, erode its competitive edge and potentially reduce economic growth. Critics are concerned that she’s too focused on what banks want — at a time when the White House is embarking on a deregulatory drive, threatening the Fed’s independence and introducing tariff-fueled economic uncertainty that could put the financial system under pressure.