Fed Plans Fewer Policy Meetings Starting in 2027

What the Fed is changing

The Federal Reserve will start trimming its policy meeting cadence in 2027. By 2028, two of the eight yearly gatherings are slated to focus on broad strategy rather than setting interest rates. It is the first overhaul of the calendar since the early 1980s, when the Fed cut back from 12 to eight meetings a year.

Chairman Kevin Warsh has said he wants to revisit how the institution works, from the data it uses to how it communicates. Earlier this year he formed task forces of outside experts to study five core areas and propose ideas, with findings expected around year end. Supporters say the new schedule restores time the Fed once used for deep dives on special topics, even as some investors worry about market disruption.

Why officials say the change is needed

Loretta Mester - on staff since 1985, the head of the Cleveland Fed between 2014 and 2024, and a regular at most FOMC meetings since 2000 - said, "This is not unprecedented for the FOMC, even in recent times."

The pre-crisis era provides the precedent, one that Kevin Warsh experienced first-hand during his 2006-2011 stint as a Fed governor. Then, six of the eight yearly meetings were typically one day long and centered on the economy and rate votes, while two extended to a second day for bigger themes. The 2008 crisis forced longer and more frequent sessions.

In 2012, the Fed made two day meetings standard, and about half were followed by a press conference that Ben S. Bernanke introduced in 2011, often ending early so he could prepare. In 2018, Jerome Powell made press briefings a feature of all meetings, with most of the heavy lifting done on day one and votes on day two. Warsh has argued that frequent meetings with press briefings steer attention to incremental moves, when questions like productivity, demographics, and resilience to shocks matter more.

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The options on the table and what critics warn

Ellen Meade - a Duke University economics professor and former Fed adviser who took part in numerous FOMC sessions between 2011 and 2020 - said the design choices will matter. She noted two paths: keep the current six to seven week rhythm and simply mark two gatherings as non voting, or space six decision meetings roughly every two months and add two special topic sessions elsewhere in the year.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin praised the every two months approach. "I really don't like having FOMC meetings and then walking out and getting a jobs report on Friday," he said, adding that a bimonthly setup could give policymakers two consecutive rounds of the full data suite before each decision. He also said the shift would not be a big departure. William Dudley, former New York Fed president, said there is no magic number of meetings and stressed that what matters most is that markets understand the Fed's reaction function - how it responds under different economic conditions.

There are trade offs. A revised schedule might require shifting when economic forecasts and rate projections come out; at present, they are issued quarterly in conjunction with every other meeting. Derek Tang of Monetary Policy Analytics wrote that with fewer live meetings, officials might more often opt for rate moves larger than the typical quarter point, and that even expecting bigger moves could raise volatility.

Georgetown University's Masaaki Yoshimori, who supports fewer but better timed meetings and met with Warsh in August, said the shift should come with an explicit readiness to hold extra meetings if needed. "The risk associated with moving from eight to six meetings is not necessarily that six normal-period meetings are insufficient on average," he wrote. "It is that an unexpected disturbance may occur during the longer interval between meetings."

What this could mean for your portfolio

Spreading rate decisions farther apart could give officials more data to assess between moves. Mester and Meade said it might also avoid awkward timing, like a meeting held the day before key third quarter data or days before midterm elections. The flip side is that fewer decision points could mean less frequent but potentially larger adjustments, which can widen short term swings as the market recalibrates. The timeline is set to start in 2027, with the new format taking shape in 2028, so watch how the Fed sequences six voting meetings and handles its projections.

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