Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters shortly after his committee planned to keep interest rates on hold for the time being that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not currently being secretly worked on by banks.
“It is wrong to say that we are working on a CBDC, that we have a secret laboratory here, and that we will present it to Congress at the appropriate moment. We are not,” Powell said in a televised news conference Wednesday. “I haven’t made any decision at all that I think this is what America should be doing.”
Powell’s comments echoed similar comments he has made recently to government officials. Earlier this month, Chairman Powell told the Senate Banking Committee: No central bank was “close” to recommending or adopting a central bank digital currency.
Digital payments ‘full scale’
But the Federal Reserve chairman made it clear that there are people looking at topics related to central bank digital currencies and digital payments.
“What we are doing and what all the major central banks are doing is trying to stay at the forefront of digital finance,” Powell said. “These issues have become the most important issues over the last five or six years.”
The biggest news related to the Federal Reserve on Friday was that the Federal Open Market Committee left the benchmark federal funds rate unchanged at its current range of 5.25% to 5.50%. This measure marked the first interest rate freeze in 2024.
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About the author
RT Watson is a senior reporter at The Block, covering a variety of topics including US-based companies, blockchain games, NFTs, and more. He previously covered entertainment for The Wall Street Journal, writing about Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. and the creator economy, focusing primarily on technological disruption across media. Previously, she covered corporate, economic and political news in Brazil at Bloomberg. She interviewed a variety of figures for RT, including CEOs, media moguls, top influencers, politicians, blue-collar workers, drug traffickers, and convicted criminals. She holds a Master’s degree in Digital Sociology.