Summer Intern - Supervision & Regulation - Residential Mortgage Lending - Federal Reserve Bank (FRB)

Company

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. It helps formulate and implement monetary policy, supervises banks and savings and loan holding companies, and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serves eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.

Bring your passion and expertise, and we’ll provide the opportunities that will challenge you and propel your growth!

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is seeking an PhD level or graduate student with preferred majors in real estate, finance, housing markets, or mortgage lending.  This opening is remote opportunity and will consider hybrid candidates as well.  The work schedule is Monday – Friday (40 hour per week).  This is a 10-week paid internship.  The hourly rate for this position is $25.00-$28.00 per hour depending on the candidate's education.  

Intern projects:

The intern will assist on projects relating to residential mortgage lending and spatial modeling of mortgage and real estate risk. The ultimate deliverable for this internship will be a research brief on regional house price changes, especially related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other protected classes. Prior research has relied on data aggregated to a zip code or MSA level, which makes studying gentrification and similar topics more difficult as the characteristics of specific homeowners are unknown. Vendor data can identify granular transaction and property data including homeowner characteristics. Using MLS and performance data, we will model changes in house prices at an individual homeowner level. The intern’s work will be preparing data and then assisting with creating a house price index that better captures borrower characteristics. This index will be used to identify changes in house prices controlling for race, etc. We will use Census data to identify race, ethnicity, and other homeowner characteristics to see how this affects prices.

This position may be fully remote, though a hybrid model where the intern comes into the office 2-3 times a week to work with the project manager will also be permissible.

For the project timeline:

• Phase 1 (Weeks 1-2): The intern will learn the specific datasets we will use and begin with cleaning and merging necessary data. Much of the cleaning and merging has been completed, so this will be a short phase where the intern’s contribution will mainly be to improve any match or cleaning.
• Phase 2 (Weeks 3-5): The intern will work with the project manager to perform statistical and econometric analyses to be used in a house price model. This will require the intern to familiarize themselves with real estate price models and literature, and the intern will be given guidance and time to review necessary literature.
• Phase 3 (Week 6): The intern will work with the project manager to assess findings from Phase 2 and prepare supporting tables and figures for a research brief on regional house price changes.
• Phase 4 (Weeks 7-9): The intern will work with the project manager to write a research brief on house price changes. The goal will be to make this brief externally facing.
• Phase 5 (Week 10): The intern will prepare a presentation on their findings and present this to the FRB as the capstone to this internship.

Required Skills:

• Coding: The primary coding languages used will be Python and Stata. An intern with experience in SAS and Stata will be satisfactory and will be given an opportunity to learn Python while working on this project.

Preferred Competencies:

• Verbal and communication skills with the ability to present effectively and efficiently.
• Problem solving skills
• Attention to detail
• Organizational skills
• Work well independently with little supervision, though the project manager will be available to assist.

Additional Information:

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia believes that diversity, equity and inclusion among our employees is essential to our success as an organization, and we want to recruit, develop and retain the most accomplished people from a diverse candidate pool. To support a workplace culture of belonging, we offer eight employee resource groups (ERGs) and a 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equality Index. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.
• We have eight employee resource groups (ERGs) to support a diverse workforce. Abilities (supporting disabilities and allies), African Heritage, Asian-Pacific, Freedom (supporting LQBTQ+ and allies), Talent Forward (supporting career growth), Women United, Working Families and Veterans. ERGs are open to all employees.
• We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job responsibilities, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.
• All Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia employees must comply with the Bank's ethics rules, which generally prohibit employees, their spouses/domestic partners, and minor children from owning securities, such as stock, of banks or savings associations or their affiliates, such as bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies. If you or your spouse/domestic partner or minor child own such securities and would not be willing or able to divest them if you accepted an offer of Bank employment, you should raise this issue with the Recruiter for this posting, who can provide you contact information for our ethics officer if necessary. You should review the Bank's Employee Code of Conduct to ensure compliance with conflict of interest rules and personal investment restrictions.
• Background investigations and drug testing are required for all new hires as a condition of employment, after the job offer is made. Candidates for positions deemed as "safety sensitive" will also be screened for the presence of marijuana. Employment may not begin until the Bank accepts the results of the background investigation.
• All employees will be subject to FBI fingerprint / criminal background and Patriot Act/ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch list checks at least once every five years.
• This position requires access to confidential supervisory information, which is limited to “Protected Individuals” as defined in the U.S. federal immigration law. Protected Individuals include, but are not limited to, U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, and U.S. permanent residents who either are not yet eligible to apply for naturalization or who have applied for naturalization within the requisite timeframe. Candidates who are not U.S. citizens must sign a declaration of intent to become a U.S. citizen when eligible to do so and pursue a path to citizenship. In addition, all candidates must undergo an applicable background check and comply with all applicable information handling rules.
• The above statements are intended to describe the general nature, level of work and the requirements of this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities associated with this position or the personnel so classified. While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of this position, management reserves the right to revise this or any job description at its discretion at any time.
• This is not a 100% remote opportunity. You will be available to work on-site in at least a hybrid capacity.
• Learn more about the Philly Fed and its culture. Learn more about working for the Philly Fed.

Full Time / Part Time

Part time

Regular / Temporary

Temporary

Job Exempt (Yes / No)

No

Job Category

Work Shift

First (United States of America)

The Federal Reserve Banks believe that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as an organization, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. The Federal Reserve Banks are committed to equal employment opportunity for employees and job applicants in compliance with applicable law and to an environment where employees are valued for their differences.

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