- Move greeted with surprise after Bank of America’s previous position on blockchain, including account suspensions for those involved
- Job advert placed on professional social networking site LinkedIn and is now closed
- “This role leads the product management team for the Ripple Project”, reads the job spec
Leading financial services institution Bank of America has announced that it is recruiting for what it calls a “product manager” for Ripple.
The Bank of America, which is the second-biggest US bank, has published a job advertisement in which it says it is seeking a “treasury product manager” for Ripple, which is a blockchain-powered payment service.
The advert was published on social networking site on LinkedIn, and the advert is now closed.
“The incumbent will be responsible for driving product strategy and growth, overseeing daily product management routines, and overseeing the development of new initiatives that result in an innovative and highly-competitive product offering”, read the advert.
The development was surprising to many in the cross border payments sector.
The Bank of America has expressed negative views on cryptocurrency in the past, and the acknowledgement that it is now recruiting for a person to fill this position is a shock to many.
It has in the past made the decision to sometimes suspend accounts which are involved in cryptocurrency transactions.
It appears to have reversed this position in recent weeks.
It has, for example, now got a patent for the blockchain technology it plans to use.
According to a report from Google Patents, the Bank said that it intended to use distributed ledger technology as a way of helping banks communicate with one another for enhanced real-time payments and better international money transfer.
Press reports suggested that the new approach from Bank of America would lead to the creation of a system which checked the identity of those who are placing the transactions.
They said that a “refunded ripple settlement” looked set to be part of the product offer – although it remained unclear whether Bank of America intended for this to be a commitment to Ripple’s services in particular, or some other type of settlement process.
In terms of this particular job application, the extra details focused on the Bank’s need for someone who could both lead a team and develop a product.
“This role leads the product management team for the Ripple Project, a decentralized ledger technology based solution to cross border payments marketed to GTS clients”, it said.
The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting “the creation of training programs, marketing materials/literature, etc. to help educate clients and BofAML sales/bankers on product use cases”.
They will need to “understand client needs, product functionality, marketplace trends and competitive landscape regarding digital disbursements and be able to discuss topics as both micro and macro levels”.
BofAML refers to the full name of the organisation, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Learn more about what’s going on in the online money transfer world here.
