Obama to Nominate Yellen as Bernanke's Successor at Fed

President Barack Obama on Wednesday will nominate Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as head of the nation's central bank, the White House said Tuesday.

The announcement is expected at 3 p.m. at the White House, Business Insider  and The Wall Street Journal report.

If she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen, the Fed's No. 2 since 2010, will take over when Bernanke's term ends on Jan. 31, the reports say.

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Yellen would be the first woman to head the Fed.

Bernanke, 59, who has been Fed chairman since 2006, said in June that he would be leaving the post. He was first nominated by President George W. Bush, and then by Obama in 2010.

Obama's front-runner for the post, his former economic adviser Lawrence Summers, withdrew from consideration in September. He was opposed by many Senate Democrats on the Banking Committee.

Yellen, 67, a Democrat, has served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, and a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley.

She is expected to continue Bernanke's easy-money policies, the Journal reports. Because inflation is less than 2 percent, the Fed could keep making credit easily available to stimulate further economic growth and hiring.