WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will hold press conferences after policy meetings four times per year in one of his biggest efforts to improve the central bank's connections with a skeptical public.

The briefings will be broadcast on the Fed's website and coincide with the Federal Open Market Committee meetings when officials update economic projections. The first will be April 27 at 2:15 p.m. Washington time, the Fed said today in a statement. The FOMC's statement will be released at 12:30 p.m. on the days when Bernanke is speaking, instead of the usual time of 2:15 p.m., the central bank said.

The announcement brings the Fed in line with other central banks and marks the most significant change to its communication policy since 2007. Bernanke has spent almost five months countering criticism from Republican lawmakers over record monetary stimulus. A majority of Americans said in a December poll that the Fed should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright.

It’s important to the Fed that "they be seen as transparent, that they're not hiding secrets and that they head off any criticism from Congress," Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial Inc. in Chicago, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Continue>>>>