George Akerlof, the husband of US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, says he has resigned from an academic advisory board funded by a large Swiss financial institution.
Akerlof, a winner of the Nobel prize in economics, says he is stepping down as a member of the advisory board of the UBS International Center of Economics in Society, located at the University of Zurich.
In a statement on Friday, Akerlof said he received no compensation for his participation on the advisory board and there was no conflict of interest.
But he said he wanted to "avoid even the appearance of a conflict".
Yellen was sworn in as Fed chair on February 3.
UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, operates an investment-banking business in the United States and is regulated by the Fed.
