NY Fed names Piper Sandler’s Roberto Perli as System Open Market Account manager

By Michael S. Derby

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Thursday that Roberto Perli will next month become the manager of its massive portfolio of securities and cash as the central bank presses forward with its efforts to shed bonds.

Perli, who is currently head of global policy at Piper Sandler, will become manager of the central bank’s System Open Market Account, which currently stands at $8.5 trillion. The bank also said Julie Remache, who is currently head of market and portfolio analysis at the New York Fed, will become the deputy manager of the SOMA portfolio.

Perli will take over for Patricia Zobel, a long time New York Fed employee who’d been managing the SOMA since its former leader, Lorie Logan, became president of the Dallas Fed last summer.

The SOMA manager has a key role in the Fed’s interaction with financial markets and helps the central bank design and implement monetary policy. The U.S. central bank has been raising rates aggressively since last year to lower high levels of inflation and hiked rates by 25 basis points Wednesday as a possible end to rate rises looms into view.

Meanwhile, the Fed is trying to shrink the size of its balance sheet by shedding Treasury and mortgage bonds acquired as part of stimulus efforts during the most acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic. That process is ongoing but it is unclear when it might end.

New York Fed leader John Williams said in a statement that “Roberto brings a deep understanding of monetary policy and financial markets and a strong commitment to public service.”

Williams said Zobel “has been exemplary in her service to the New York Fed and the (Federal Open Market Committee), which benefited from her sound counsel and expertise.”

A New York Fed spokesperson said that Zobel will leave the bank in late February after a quarter century of service. A person familiar with the matter said that Zobel had not sought to permanently manage the SOMA portfolio.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)