Cynthia Merritt

Cynthia Merritt is the assistant director of the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where she is responsible for managing research initiatives focused on emerging risks in legacy and alternative retail payment systems. Cynthia helped launch the Retail Payments Risk Forum as a new department and special initiative at the Atlanta Fed in 2008 in response to the recognized growth in electronic payment adoption and new innovative payment schemes. She is responsible for managing staff research initiatives on a variety of payments topics, with a strong focus on mobile banking and payments. Cynthia is also editor for the Retail Payments Risk Forum’s Portals and Rails blog, as well as a major article contributor.

Prior to assuming this role, she worked as a senior bank policy analyst in the Policy and Supervisory Studies Group in the Atlanta Fed’s Supervision and Regulation Division, where she was responsible for research and analysis of trends affecting the banking industry. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve in 2004, Cindy worked in various capacities for the Comptroller of the Currency as an analyst and a senior national bank examiner. Her career with the OCC spanned 14 years and included extensive work with problem and complex national bank organizations, with a specialized focus on commercial credit, wealth management, and capital market activities. She received a BS degree in finance with a banking concentration from the University of South Carolina. She also completed the ABA’s National Graduate Trust School at Northwestern University.