Interest rates are not the only thing rising at the U.S. Federal Reserve.
New Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who took office on Feb. 1, saw his wealth creep up at the end of last year as he was waiting in the wings to succeed Alan Greenspan as the man at the helm of U.S. monetary policy.
According to his latest financial disclosure report covering 2005 and released Tuesday, the value of assets held by the Bernanke household closed out the year somewhere in the $1.15 million to $2.49 million range.
That is up from a range of $953,000 to $2.12 million as disclosed in papers filed along with his nomination to the top Fed post, which was announced in October.
Under U.S. ethics laws, Bernanke and other Fed governors are required to file annual financial disclosure statements with the government.
While Bernanke is hardly a pauper, he is far from being the wealthiest member of the Fed board.
That distinction goes to Kevin Warsh, whose wife, Jane Lauder is an heiress to a cosmetics fortune.
Together, Warsh and his wife had combined assets at the end of last year totaling at least $66 million, according to a Reuters analysis of the disclosure forms.
It is impossible to gauge the extent of their wealth, because the government does not require spouses to disclose an upper end of holdings valued at more than $1 million each.
Excluding his wife’s wealth, Warsh — the youngest governor in the Fed’s 92-year history when he was confirmed for the post in February at age 35 — held assets valued in a $916,000 to $2.07 million range.
Fed Governor Susan Bies is the second-wealthiest member of the Fed board, with assets valued at $7.32 million to $18.32 million.
Governor Randall Kroszner, who like Warsh was confirmed in his post in February, had assets valued at $1.95 million to $4.22 million.
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, who has spent his entire career within the Federal Reserve System, had assets worth somewhere between $611,000 and $1.64 million.
