FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the U.S. Treasury building in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender is leaving the Trump administration less than five months after being confirmed by the Senate, the Treasury Department said.

Faulkender is the second Senate-confirmed official to leave the Treasury Department this month, following the departure of IRS Commissioner Billy Long, who said he was being tapped as ambassador to Iceland.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thanked Faulkender for his work at the department but gave no reason for his departure.

"Since January, he has played a critical role in overseeing the U.S. Department of the Treasury's operations and executing on President Trump's bold economic agenda," Bessent said in a statement. "His important work has supported the passage of the historic One Big Beautiful Bill and GENIUS Act, and the leveling of sanctions against our adversaries."

Trump nominated Faulkender, a University of Maryland finance professor, in December to serve as the No. 2 official at Treasury, where he had been assistant secretary of economic policy during Trump's first term. He was confirmed by the Senate for the role on March 26.

At the end of the first Trump administration, Faulkender had returned to the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, where he has been a finance professor since 2008.

He had also served as the chief economist for two years at the America First Policy Institute, conservative think tank that has helped shape Trump's policy agenda.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Franklin Paul)