Mpls. Fed Member Plans To Leave When Term Ends In 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) — Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, says he will step down when his current term ends in early 2016, marking the departure of one of the Fed's leading proponents of easier credit conditions to battle unemployment.

Kocherlakota said in a statement Friday that he has informed the regional bank's board of directors that he had decided he would not seek another term once his current term ends on Feb. 29, 2016.

Currently a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Kocherlakota cast the lone dissenting vote at the Fed's last meeting in October. He argued against ending the Fed's bond buying program and urged the central bank to make a commitment to achieving its inflation target before starting to raise interest rates.