Fed Chair Jerome Powell has confirmed to the Senate Banking Committee that the Federal Reserve presently has no plans to launch a central financial institution digital forex (CBDC), assuaging issues over privateness and authorities surveillance.
Throughout the listening on Thursday, Powell emphasized that the Fed’s focus stays on sustaining the present banking system construction, the place solely banks maintain accounts with the Fed.
Powell reassured the committee and the general public that the idea of a digital greenback continues to be under research and that implementation isn’t on the horizon. He confused the significance of privateness and the standard function of banks, indicating that the Fed wouldn’t help a system that permits authorities visibility into particular person transactions.
Powell’s statements come amid international developments in digital currencies, with different nations advancing their CBDC initiatives, and political debates within the U.S. relating to the way forward for a digital greenback.
In keeping with the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, 19 of the G20 nations are actually in superior phases of CBDC improvement, with 9 of them in pilot.