Yellen leads picks for U.S. Fed seat

"All of these people ... would be very sympathetic to Obama economic policies. I don't see anything in this group of people that says they're concerned about inflation," said Robert Eisenbeis, former director of research at the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.

Yellen would replace Donald Kohn, a 40-year veteran of the Fed who announced earlier this month that he would retire on June 23. Gibbs repeated on Friday that Obama intended to nominate someone to be vice chairman in time to get them through the Senate confirmation process by the time Kohn retires.

Gibbs said there were other names in the Fed selection process in addition to Yellen, Raskin and Diamond.

A source familiar with the process had said that while top candidates had been identified for each spot, the administration was vetting other candidates in case any of its preferred picks fell through.

Yellen would serve a four-year term as vice chairman concurrent with a separate term as a member of the Fed's board. Fed board terms are for 14 years. The board terms that need to be filled would expire in 2014, 2016 and 2024.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Ann Saphir in Boca Raton, Florida; Editing by Neil Stempleman)