Washington: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen is President Barack Obama's pick for vice-chairman of the central bank in Washington, three people with knowledge of the selection process said.

The nomination is pending completion of vetting by the Obama administration, one person said.

The vice-chairman gets a four-year term, subject to Senate approval, and a separate term on the Fed Board of Governors.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the selection hasn't yet been announced.

The Obama administration also is working to fill two other vacancies on the seven-member Federal Reserve board and has approached Sarah Bloom Raskin, Maryland's commissioner of financial regulation, according to one of the people familiar with Yellen's selection and an additional person with knowledge of the process. Peter Diamond, an econ-omics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has also been approached about joining the board, they said.

Mum's the world

Raskin, 48, contacted outside her home in Takoma Park, Maryland, referred questions to the White House.

Diamond, 69, has been a professor at the school in Cambridge since 1966, spanning Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's studies there for a doctorate in the late 1970s.

He didn't respond to an email request for comment.

Yellen, 63, would replace Donald Kohn, a 40-year Fed veteran who resigned last week effective June 23. Yellen, who served as President Bill Clinton's chief economist in the 1990s, said last month that the US economy "still needs the support of extraordinarily low" interest rates.

She would gain a permanent vote on monetary policy, instead of having a vote one year out of every three as a regional Federal Reserve chief. All governors have a vote on rate decisions.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at a briefing on Friday that Yellen is a leading contender for vice chairman and confirmed that Raskin and Diamond are under consideration for the other vacancies.

Lily Ruiz, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fed, declined to comment.

As vice chairman, Yellen would have a closer role in guiding the Federal Reserve as officials decide how much longer to keep the benchmark rate close to zero and how to use new policy tools to tighten credit as the nation emerges from the worst slump since the 1930s.