Kevin Warsh to be sworn in as Federal Reserve chair on Friday

President Donald Trump will swear in his handpicked Kevin Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve at a ceremony Friday, a White House official told CNBC.

The move would end a process that began in the summer of 2025 and culminated last week with the Senate confirming Warsh on a nearly party-line vote.

The new chairman will replace Jerome Powell, whose term ended Friday but continues to serve on an interim basis until Warsh is officially inaugurated.

Once in office, Warsh, 56, would become the 11th president of the modern era and also the richest person to hold the seat, according to financial disclosures he submitted before his confirmation. He will have to divest himself of most of the investments he has accumulated in his portfolio to approve the stringent new regulations agreed to by Fed officials.

The ceremony will be meaningful in that Trump not only nominates Warsh, but also does so with the expectation that the post-Powell Fed will continue to cut interest rates, as it has done three times in 2025.

But markets expect high inflation levels and a stable labor market to deter further expansion until there is sufficient evidence that the pace of price increases is trending back toward the Fed’s 2% target. Powell chaired the Fed, which has missed its target for more than five years.