Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is considering whether to issue digital dollars on a “very broad basis.” He noted that the Fed is working with Congress and the executive branch on whether to issue a central bank digital currency.
Fed Chairman Powell on progress on digital dollars
Fed Chairman Powell provided an update on the central bank’s work on digital dollars Tuesday at a panel discussion on digital finance hosted by the Bank of France.
“Cash is not disappearing here in the United States. We still use quite a lot of cash,” he began. However, the central bank governor noted that.” Although not in absolute terms, it is declining compared to non-cash settlements.”
Powell elaborated, explaining that the Federal Reserve is looking very closely at the “potential costs and benefits” of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the United States.
We are looking at it very carefully. We are evaluating both policy and technical issues, and we are doing that on a very broad spectrum.
But Powell made it clear that ” We have not decided to proceed and do not expect to make that decision for some time.”
The Fed chairman explained that ” We believe that we are working with Congress … but also with the executive branch, which brings expertise to many of the issues that we have to deal with here.”
He further elaborated, “Ultimately, we need approval from both the executive branch and Congress to move forward with a central bank digital currency.”
We see this as at least a multi-year process, where we work and build public confidence in our analysis and final conclusions.
Noting that the Fed has not reached a decision on whether to issue digital dollars, Powell concluded.” That’s where we are and we have a lot of work to do.”
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