US Federal Reserve Hiring New Manager to Research Digital Currencies

The United States Federal Reserve is hiring a manager for its Retail Payments section in Washington, D.C.

On Nov. 3, the U.S central bank posted a new job opening to its website, looking for a new manager who is expected to contribute to the research of digital currencies, stablecoins and distributed ledger technologies. 

Besides the principal duties and responsibilities, the position also requires the manager to promote and contribute to the development and implementation of new policies, regulations and research in relation to retail payment systems. 

The new hire will be part of the Retail Payments section, which oversees the Federal Reserve Banks’ check and automated clearinghouse services, facilitates research in retail payments innovation, and addresses policy and regulatory issues concerning retail payment systems.

The listed maximum salary grade is federal grade 29, meaning that the Fed is willing to pay up to $250,700 per year.

A month ago, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee asked the Federal Reserve whether there are any plans to launch a U.S. dollar digital currency, expressing their concerns that the importance of the U.S. dollar could be in jeopardy “from wide adoption of digital fiat currencies.”

The fact that the central bank has now expanded the role of its Retail Payments manager to include digital currencies, stablecoins and distributed ledger technologies, could be an indication that the Federal Reserve is at least researching the possibility.

“To end US dollar dominance makes no sense”

In September, former Federal Reserve official Simon Potter said that proposals to end the U.S. dollar’s dominance by replacing it with a digital currency make no sense. He added:

“I see no argument that makes sense to have something that complicated out there when you have large, liquid capital markets in the U.S. Not having one currency that you can basically price things and have a deep market in, that makes life much harder for the global economy.”