Departure of New York Fed's Dudley hangs another question over Fed leadership

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York confirmed on Monday that William Dudley, among the most influential monetary policymakers throughout the financial crisis and its aftermath, expects to retire by mid-2018, raising another question over leadership at the U.S. central bank less than a week after President Donald Trump chose a new Fed chief.

Dudley, one of the central bank's strongest advocates of unprecedented monetary stimulus in the last decade and a steady hand on its delicate market operations, will step down before his official term end in January 2019. The New York Fed's board said it has set up a search committee and aims to name a successor by the middle of next year.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)