(MENAFN- AFP) Former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has been hired as a consultant by the Citadel hedge fund, the company announced Thursday.
Bernanke, who led the Fed from February 2006 to January 2014, will advise the investment firm on monetary policy, financial markets and the global economy, the firm said.
"We are honored to welcome Dr. Bernanke to Citadel," said Citadel founder and chief executive Ken Griffin.
"He has extraordinary knowledge of the global economy and his insights on monetary policy and the capital markets will be extremely valuable to our team and to our investors."
Citadel, founded in 1990 and based in Chicago, had more than $25 billion in investment capital as of March 1.
Bernanke told The New York Times that he was cognizant of the need to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and had rebuffed offers from banks, which the Fed oversees.
Citadel "is not regulated by the Federal Reserve and I won't be doing lobbying of any sort," he told the newspaper. "I ruled out any firm that was regulated by the Federal Reserve."
In the Citadel statement, Bernanke praised the global investment firm as "a dynamic firm with tremendously talented people and a rigorous approach to research and investing."
Bernanke led the Fed through the worst economic crisis in the country since the Great Depression of the 1930s, directing a number of extraordinary measures and introducing a policy of ultra-low interest rates that remains in place.
In a recent blog post hosted by the Brookings Institution, where he is a fellow, Bernanke defended low interest rates as necessary to get the economy moving.
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