New Federal Reserve chief to keep press rolling Janet Yellen will replace Ben Bernanke as the chairman of the US Federal Reserve. THE first female head of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellan is expected to maintain the central bank's stimulus and $85 billion monthly bond buying program. The decision by US President Barrack Obama to appoint Ms Yellan to succeed outgoing Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, whose eight-year term expires on January 31 was greeted positively by the markets. The Australian dollar strengthened temporarily to US94.56c on the news and US futures climbed ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. But concerns over the deadlocked debt talks in Washington tempered any rally with the Australian dollar retreating to US94.36c in late trading. After falling on opening, the Australian stock marker recovered to close flat at 5152 points. Ms Yellen and Mr Bernanke are scheduled to appear with President Obama at the White House overnight for the formal announcement. The 67-year old emerged as the leading candidate after Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury secretary withdrew from consideration last month in the face of rising opposition. Market watchers said Ms Yellen - who is widely seen as even more doveish than her predecessor was instrumental in developing the Fed's response to the global financial crisis - will continue to keep interest rates near record lows to support the economy. AMP Capital Investors chief economist Shane Oliver said were it not for the efforts of Mr Bernanke and his co-architect Ms Yellen in Fed's response to the global financial crisis the world would be in far worse shape today. Having Janet Yellen take over at the Fed means a steady hand at the Fed with minimal risk that the Fed will exit from its stimulatory approach before the economy is ready. Her confirmation will remove a risk that has been hanging over financial markets," he said. In a bid to keep the U.S. economy out of the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930s, Mr Bernanke and Ms Yellan oversaw a policy that lent money to banks after credit markets froze, cut its key short-term interest rate to near zero and bought trillions in bonds to lower long-term borrowing rates. As Bernanke's top deputy since 2010, Ms Yellen managed both the Fed's traditional tool of short-term rates and the monthly bond purchases and its guidance to investors about the likely direction of rates.