Is the Federal Reserve Planning to Create a Digital Currency?

Technology has changed everyone's life and none more so than American consumers. Digital photography, online shopping, in-app purchases, paperless transactions and contactless payments are commonplace. 

- MIKE GAROFALO

McKinsey & Company's 'Survey of US Consumers' reported that 78% of Americans utilized a digital payment method in 2020, undoubtedly exacerbated by Covid-19.

Today's technology allows consumers to make payments or send money through Venmo, or PayPal, or any of the other digital payment systems. But this system still involves credit card companies, banks or other financial institutions. Those players "settle" the transactions as they are authorized and approved.

On January 20, 2022, the United States Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors released a paper that discussed how the United States domestic payment system could be improved. Among other things, it offered the pros and cons of creating a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Fed then asked for commentary on its paper by May. The paper acknowledged the widespread popularity of digital assets and questioned how a CBDC might fit into today's economy.

A Federal Digital Dollar would take money out of your digital wallet and place that money in your friend's or a company's digital wallet in one fast process. It would all then be recorded in the Federal Reserve's digital ledger.

Today, the only currency available to citizens is paper currency (Federal Reserve Notes in denominations from $1.00 to $100.00). A digital currency option would enable the public to make their own digital payments and it would be, according to this Federal Reserve report, the "safest digital asset available to the general public, with no associated credit or liquidity risk."