Trump's Fed nominees pledge to uphold dual mandate

By Ann Saphir and Lindsay Dunsmuir

(Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Board nominees Richard Clarida and Michelle Bowman on Tuesday both pledged their best efforts toward achieving the U.S. central bank's twin goals of full employment and low inflation in a nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee.

"I will support monetary policies that take a balanced approach to achieving these important objectives," said Clarida, an economist who advises fund manager Pimco.

"The dual mandate is critically important to our economy, businesses, families, and communities," said Bowman, a Kansas City bank regulator, adding in her testimony she "will be very focused on how we can do the best job possible to fulfill that mandate."

The two nominees will, if approved, join President Donald Trump's other two mainstream picks, Jerome Powell and Randal Quarles, in largely filling out the remaining spots on the influential Fed Board of Governors.

Each staked out slightly different priorities on regulation, with Bowman - who said her family has been in community banking since her great great grandfather helped found Farmers and Drovers Bank in 1882 - saying that some rules put in place after the financial crisis put small banks at a disadvantage.

"I will bring this perspective to my work at the Board to ensure that rules preserve the resiliency of the financial system, but are appropriately tailored to the size, complexity, and risk of an institution," she said.

Clarida also said he wanted regulations to be tailored "appropriately," but added he would want to do so without "putting the system at risk in an unnecessary way."

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir and Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci)