Mohamed El-Erian in race for Fed Vice Chair: CNBC

The chief economic adviser at Allianz would hold the second highest position at the Fed, potentially behind chairman nominee Jerome Powell.

The White House is considering bond guru Mohamed El-Erian for the vice chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, according to a report by CNBC.

Currently chief economic adviser at Allianz and former CEO of its fixed-income powerhouse Pimco, Mr. El-Erian also served as deputy director at the International Monetary Fund and would take the seat vacated in October by Stanley Fischer.

If selected, he would hold the second highest position at the Fed, potentially behind Jerome Powell, who awaits Senate confirmation to succeed Janet Yellen as chairman when her term expires in February.

On Nov. 2, Bloomberg News published an opinion piece by Mr. El-Erian praising Mr. Powell as a pick that would provide “a sense of continuity and predictability that is beneficial for the successful maintenance of the ‘beautiful normalization’ process that has allowed the Fed to gently and gradually step back from unconventional monetary policies without destabilizing markets or derailing the pickup in U.S. and synchronized global growth.”

The search process has just begun and the vice chair announcement is not likely this year, said a CNBC source.

Other candidates for the vice chair job that “might plausibly be considered” include Glenn Hubbard, the Columbia Business School dean, and current San Francisco Fed President John Williams, according to Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central bank strategy at Evercore ISI.