By DPA,
Washington : US President Barack Obama plans to nominate Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term at the helm of the rate-setting central bank, the Washington Post reported late Monday on its website, citing White House officials.
Broadcaster ABC News had its own internet report of the story.
Bernanke, who was appointed by former president George W. Bush to succeed long-serving Fed chief Alan Greenspan, started a four-year term in February 2006.
It has not been clear whether Bernake would be re-appointed by Obama. Another term for Bernanke, 55, would require US Senate confirmation.
Bernanke has been in charge of the US money supply and large areas of banking and financial regulation during the ongoing recession, which grew out of a crash in housing prices and turned into a global crisis last year as mounting US mortgage defaults sparked a panic on Wall Street.
His current term expired Jan 31.