Maria Akers

Payments Specialist
Federal Reserve Financial Services

Maria Akers is a senior payments specialist on the Customer and Industry Relations team in Federal Reserve Financial Services. In this role, Maria manages strategic engagement initiatives with the fintech sector, national trade groups, payment facilitators, and large end users. Previously, she supported the development of the FedNow® Service, which enables participating financial institutions to provide instant payment services around the clock, every day of the year.

Maria began her 30-year career with the Federal Reserve System at the Atlanta Fed where she specialized in electronic payments. As an associate economist at the Omaha Branch of the Kansas City Fed, Maria conducted economic research focused on agricultural and rural issues. She also worked in Cash Services where she monitored the processing of currency and coin volumes in excess of $1 billion.

A native of Atlanta, GA, Maria has a B.A. in economics from Agnes Scott College and an M.S. in economics from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.