Cliff Owen/AP
Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen, center, sits between board Vice Chair Stanley Fischer, left, and member Daniel Tarullo during an open meeting in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will be stepping down from the central bank's powerful board of governors as soon as her prospective replacement, Fed Governor Jerome Powell, takes her role early next year, the Fed said on Monday.
The announcement ends some speculation that she might stay on as a Fed board governor, which she was entitled to do under Fed rules, since her term as governor is separate from that of chair.
Yellen is the first Fed chair in recent memory not to be reappointed by the president despite a solid four-year term.
"Yellen submitted her resignation Monday as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, effective upon the swearing in of her successor as Chair," the Fed said in a statement.