The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is actively hiring traders as its seeks to manage its burgeoning securities holdings, making the central bank one of Wall Street’s most active recruiters of financial talent, reported the Financial Times. It plans to increase the staff in its markets group to 400 by the end of the year – up from 240 at the end of 2007. Most new recruits come from private sector financial firms and it’s hiring employees as many banks, rating agencies, hedge funds and private equity groups shed staff. New York city officials recently estimated that the sector’s problems could mean140,000 job losses. The Fed’s need for more traders is a direct consequence of the central bank’s efforts to keep credit flowing through the economy. It has been buying fixed-income securities at such a rate that its assets have more than doubled to $2,000bn in the past year, leading the central bank to conclude that it needs more people to monitor the markets and to manage its credit risks. Patricia Mosser, a senior advisor, said: “Once we started to have to implement programmes that were clearly outside the traditional credit-easing tools that the Fed has used before, it became illogical to manage some of the new programs inside the current structure.” She added many of the new programs–ranging from first-ever purchases of mortgage-backed securities to lending money to hedge funds to buy securities backed by loans–”needed their own resources.”
Jobs Galore at N.Y.’s Federal Reserve Bank
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York plans to increase the staff in its markets group to 400 by the end of the year – up from 240 at the end of 2007.
August 11, 2009