Washington —

The Federal Reserve must be relieved of its duties regulating the nation’s banks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Friday.

In an essay published in The Wall Street Journal, Bessent said the central bank has veered away from what he described as its core mission of promoting full employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates.

President Donald Trump’s top economic official is doubling down on an idea he has trumpeted for months: The Fed has overstepped its bounds by taking on banking regulation, and that must stop.

“The Fed now regulates, lends to and sets the profitability calculus for the banks it oversees, an unavoidable conflict that blurs accountability and jeopardizes independence,” Bessent wrote. “There must also be an honest, independent,

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