Richard F. Syron

Richard F. Syron was the eleventh president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, serving from January 1, 1989 to March 31, 1994.

Syron was born in Boston. He graduated from Boston College in 1966 and received his doctorate in economics from Tufts University in 1971.¹ From 1974 to 1985, Syron worked at the Boston Fed in multiple roles, serving as an economist, officer, and economic adviser in the Research Department. He took two leaves of absence from the Boston Fed in that era to serve as deputy assistant Treasury secretary and in 1981-82 as assistant to Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. In January 1986, he became president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, part of the U.S. Federal Home Loan Bank system.²

Syron returned to the Reserve Bank in 1989, when he was appointed president.² In this position, Syron was active in public policy debates. He sponsored a landmark study on racial discrimination in mortgage lending.³ In addition, he played a key role in the restructuring of New England's banking system following the strains of the 1980s and early 1990s.¹

Syron left the Boston Fed in 1994 to become chairman and chief executive officer of the American Stock Exchange. In 2003, he was named chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), serving in that capacity until 2008.⁴

Written by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as of November 2013 and updated by Lily Aydt, Ella Needler, and Genevieve Podleski as of July 2022. See disclaimer and update policy.