The White House is close to nominating Stanley Fischer, the former governor of the Bank of Israel, as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, various media outlets reported on Wednesday.



Fischer, 70, headed the Israeli central bank until earlier this year. He is a former head of the economics department at MIT, former number two official at the IMF and former chief economist at the World Bank.

Among his students during his 20-plus years teaching at MIT were outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and former presidential advisor Greg Mankiw.

(Read more: Man who taught the biggest central bankers retires)

Fischer also spent three years as a vice chairman at Citigroup, from 2002 to 2005, before joining the Bank of Israel.

Over the summer, before President Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen to replace Bernanke, there were reports that a number of economists and central bankers actually favored Fischer to take over the Fed.

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