Fed Challenge

The College Fed Challenge is an annual monetary policy competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve. Five of the twelve Federal Reserve districts regularly participate in the competition. Schools in the other seven districts are combined into an at-large district.

Teams of students make a 15-minute presentation that covers the state of the economy and financial markets and then provide recommendations about various dimensions of monetary policy, including the federal funds rate, the Fed’s balance sheet, and communications. After the presentation, teams answer questions from a panel of judges.

The first round of the 2025 Regional Competition for the Boston District was held virtually on October 24th. Twenty-six teams were divided into six brackets. Bentley’s bracket included Merrimack College, Northshore Community College, and Connecticut College. The top team from each bracket then advanced to the final round of the Regional Competition on October 31st, held in person at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Bentley was joined by Northeastern, Yale, Harvard, Babson, and Boston University in the regional final. Each of the six teams delivered their presentation and responded to questions from a panel of judges from the Boston Fed. In the end, Bentley earned an Honorable Mention while Harvard advanced to represent the Boston District in the National Competition in November. Harvard went on to earn second place while Pace University earned the title of National Champion.

The nine students representing Bentley in 2025 included:

Alex Cannistra 

Soni Kumar 

Jorge Mendez 

Nick Olssen 

Vincent Paratore 

Sean Pesner 

Sam Slack 

Nate Tebeau 

Jack Watchmaker

Based on their assessment of the economy, they recommended that the Fed maintain the target range of the federal funds rate at 3.75%-4%, continue with the balance sheet drawdown of $5 billion Treasuries and $35 billion agency mortgage-backed securities per month, and communicate their commitment to controlling inflationary pressures.

Bentley has been competing in the Fed Challenge since 2007. We have won the Boston regional competition four times: 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015. At the national level, we won the national championship in 2010, were runner up in 2012, and were honorable mentions in 2014 and 2015. The Boston region is perhaps the most competitive region in the entire Fed Challenge, featuring Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, BC, BU, Tufts, and a host of other top schools.