Alfred Hayes (banker)

Alfred Hayes, Jr. (July 4, 1910 – October 21, 1989) was an American banker and an expert in international finance. Hayes was known as a conservative money manager who took a strong stand against inflation. He also had a reputation as a lightning-fast mathematician.

Hayes was born on Independence Day, July 4, 1910 in Ithaca, New York. He was a student at Harvard College before transferring to Yale, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry. He then studied for a year at the Harvard Business School before attending New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. At Oxford, Hayes studied economics.

In 1933, Hayes became an analyst for the investment department of City Bank Farmers Trust Co. In 1940 he transferred to the bond department of the National City Bank. Two years later he became assistant secretary in the investment department of the New York Trust Co. During World War II, Hayes served for two years in Washington, D.C. and Rome as a U.S. Navy lieutenant in the office of financial planning for military government and later in the office of the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner. After the war, Hayes returned to New York Trust, where he became assistant vice president (1947). From 1949 to 1955 Hayes served as vice president in charge of the Trust's foreign division.

Most notably, Hayes served from 1956 to 1975 as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. When Hayes appeared before the House Banking Committee in 1964, committee chairman Wright Patman, a strong opponent of the Federal Reserve System, told Hayes: "You can absolutely veto everything the President does. You have the power to veto what the Congress does, and the fact is that you have done it. You are going too far."

After leaving the Federal Reserve, Hayes served as chairman of Morgan Stanley International. He retired in 1981. He died on October 21, 1989.

John Brooks, "Annals of Finance: In Defense of Sterling I," The New Yorker, March 23, 1968, 44-96
John Brooks, "Annals of Finance: In Defense of Sterling II," The New Yorker, March 30, 1968, 43-101