FILE PHOTO: U.S. Inspector General of the Department of Justice Michael Horowitz takes part in a U.S. House Oversight Committee's hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that Michael Horowitz will serve as the central bank's new inspector general.

Horowitz, who most recently served as the Justice Department's inspector general, or IG, replaces Mark Bialek, who retired in April after serving in that role since 2011. As Fed IG, Horowitz is also responsible for serving as the independent watchdog of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

While serving as the DOJ's watchdog, Horowitz also chaired a committee of 21 federal inspectors general charged with overseeing $5 trillion in relief spending tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also chaired the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and has been a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Earlier, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and was chief of its public corruption unit.

The Fed's IG is unusual among government watchdogs for being selected by the chair of the central bank. Some senators, who contend that arrangement makes it impossible for the IG to conduct real oversight over the central bank, have introduced legislation that would have the president select the IG, who would then be subject to Senate confirmation.

The central bank IG was most prominently in the public's eye in the aftermath of the central bank's trading controversy, which saw the office weigh in on the propriety of some Fed officials' trading activities. Bialek, the former IG, faced a tough hearing in Congress in 2023 and generated controversy over his defense of his high level of compensation.

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder and Michael S. Derby; Editing by Leslie Adler, Lisa Shumaker and Andrea Ricci)