ATLANTA _ The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta will step down in February.
Dennis Lockhart, who has been president and chief executive of the Atlanta Fed for nearly 10 years, announced the move Tuesday.
A committee of the Atlanta Fed's board of directors will conduct a search for a successor. If a successor is not named by Feb. 28, 2017, first vice president and chief operating officer Marie Gooding will become interim president, the Atlanta Fed said.
The Atlanta Fed is one of a dozen regional reserve banks around the nation and serves the Sixth Federal Reserve District, which includes Alabama, Florida and Georgia and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Part of the nation's central banking system, the Atlanta Fed participates in setting national monetary policy, supervises numerous banking organizations, and provides a variety of payment services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.
Federal reserve policy on interest rates has been in the spotlight _ and often under a microscope _ since the Great Recession. The Fed's main policymaking body, the Federal Open Market Committee, has held down interest rates in an effort to stimulate the economy, though it nudged them up in late 2015.
In a speech last month, Lockhart said he's confident U.S. economic growth is accelerating, justifying at least one hike this year.
"I'm not locked in to any policy position at this stage, but if my confidence in the economy proves to be justified, I think at least one increase of the policy rate could be appropriate later this year," Lockhart said, according to a Bloomberg report.
Lockhart is not a voting member of the FOMC but is considered a centrist among regional presidents. Earlier this week he told an audience he expects "lively discussion" at this month's meeting of the committee to discuss possible rate hikes.
