Warsh Says Fed Will Cut FOMC Meetings From Eight to Six

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said the central bank will likely reduce the number of interest-rate decisions it makes each year to six from eight, according to Bloomberg. The change would mark the first structural overhaul of the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting calendar in years.

What Did Warsh Say About the FOMC Schedule?

Warsh told Bloomberg on October 28 that the Fed will begin phasing in a reduced meeting schedule, cutting the current eight annual rate decisions down to six. Bloomberg's report does not specify which two meetings would be eliminated or whether the remaining six would be spaced evenly across the calendar year.

Why Is the Fed Cutting Two Meetings a Year?

Bloomberg's dispatch, sourced to Warsh's own remarks, does not lay out a rationale for the reduction. No additional Fed officials, staff memos, or FOMC statements are cited alongside Warsh's comment, so the reasoning behind moving from eight meetings to six remains attributed to him alone pending further Fed communication.

When Does the New Meeting Schedule Begin?

The timeline, per Bloomberg, calls for a phase-in starting next year. A timeline of the transition, as reported:

• 2026: The FOMC continues operating under its existing eight-meeting-a-year calendar, the schedule in place for decades.
• 2027: The Fed begins phasing in the reduced schedule, according to Warsh's comments to Bloomberg.
• Beyond 2027: The committee is expected to settle into six scheduled rate decisions annually once the phase-in is complete, based on Warsh's description of the plan.

Bloomberg's report does not specify an exact completion date for the phase-in or whether it will take more than one calendar year to finish.

How Does This Relate to the Fed's Most Recent Rate Decision?

The schedule announcement comes in the same week the Fed held rates steady and left open the possibility of a December move, according to HTT News. That reporting shows the committee is still working through its current eight-meeting calendar for 2026, with a December session still on the books under the existing framework — underscoring that any shift to six meetings a year would not take hold until the 2027 cycle Warsh described.

What Isn't Yet Known About the Change?

Neither Bloomberg's report nor HTT's coverage of this week's rate decision details how the Fed would restructure its communications, economic projections, or press conferences around a smaller slate of meetings. The Fed has historically paired quarterly meetings with updated economic forecasts and a press conference from the chair; it is not yet reported whether that pairing would change under the new structure. Warsh's comments, as relayed by Bloomberg, represent the first public confirmation of the plan, and no formal FOMC statement or Federal Reserve Board notice has been cited alongside it.

The Fed has not published a formal notice on its own calendar page confirming the shift as of this report.