Bank of America CEO says U.S. consumers could become discouraged if rates don’t come down soon

(Reuters) – If the U.S. Federal Reserve does not start cutting interest rates relatively soon, U.S. consumers could become discouraged, Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said on Sunday.

In late July, the Fed kept its benchmark rate in the same 5.25%-5.50% range it has maintained for more than a year, but indicated that a rate cut could come as early as September if inflation continued to slow.

“They’ve told people that tariffs probably won’t go up, but if they don’t start lowering them relatively soon, it could discourage the American consumer,” Moynihan told CBS in an interview.

“Once the American consumer starts getting really negative, it’s hard to get them back.”

Moynihan, pressed to respond to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s assertion that presidents should have a say in Fed decisions, said people were free to give advice to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and it was then his job to decide what to do.

“If you look at the economies of the world and you see the countries where central banks are independent and operate freely, they tend to do better than those that are not,” he said.