Despite signals from the Federal Reserve that there may only be one interest rate hike this year, former Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said Wednesday that if he was still with the central bank he would look to raise rates a couple of times.
"I want to have something to give back in case we slide backwards," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."
"We are seven-plus years into this cycle and I'm deeply worried about the damage that's being done to insurance companies, community regional banks, and the interest rate spreads for big banks and the money market funds. That needs to be taken into consideration."
The Fed ended its June meeting Wednesday by saying it would not raise interest rates. The central bank's "dot plot," which contains the rate forecasts of Fed officials, shows that six members now believe there will be just one rate increase this year.
In her news conference after the meeting, Chair Janet Yellen said Brexit concerns were a factor in the decision not to change the Fed's monetary policy.
However, for Fisher, a key moment was when Yellen responded to a question about whether the central bank would possibly move toward negative rates instead of a rate hike.
"What she said was we have the rollovers in our portfolio ... so that we can achieve accommodation if necessarily without, and she said in this press conference, going back to zero. To me that was the most important statement made in her entire press conference."
— CNBC's Patti Domm contributed to this report.