• The United States Department of the Treasury has released comments from Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang on the “Next Steps to the Future of Money and Payments”.
• These remarks confirm the formation of a CBDC working group that would advance work on a CBDC.
• It has been suggested that a “potential U.S. CBDC, if one were created, would best serve the United States by being ‘intermediated,’ meaning that the private sector would offer accounts or digital wallets to facilitate the management of CBDC holdings and payments.
U.S Treasury Comments on Next Steps to Future Payments
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released comments from Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang on the “Next Steps to the Future of Money and Payments,” addressing CBDCs and the approach the American government is taking to their potential implementation.
Formation of Working Group
The original Treasury report released in September 2022 described the formation of a CBDC working group that would advance work on a CBDC. Liang’s remarks confirmed the formation of that group.”One of the central tasks for the CBDC Working Group is to complement the Fed’s work by considering the implications of a U.S. CBDC for policy objectives for which a broader Administration perspective is helpful,” Liang said.
Potential Forms & Features
To give you a sense of how we are pursuing this work, I will describe our approach to thinking about CBDC options,the policy questions we are attempting to answer, andthe kinds kinds of recommendations we hope to develop.” Highlights from this description include a look at potential forms that a CBDC could take, as well as potential core features such as separate retail and wholesale versions, and an “intermediated” version facilitated by private sector entities rather than government-issued accounts or digital wallets..
Legislation Proposals
In his piece for Bitcoin Magazine, Mark Goodwin described how Bitcoiners may have “spent so much time looking for CBDCs, we missedthe private-entity stablecoin monster right in frontof our eyes.” The Treasury’s released remarks suggestthataCBDCmaywellcomeonthebacksofprivateentitieswithmajorincentivestoparticipate..NotablythereisapieceoflegislationthathasbeenintroducedbyRepublicanlawmakersthatwould”prohibittheFederalReservefromissuingaCBDCdirectlytoanyone.”
Real Time Payment Systems
The Federal Reserve accordingtoliang”hasindicatedthatitexpectstolaunchtheFedNowServicein2024toproviderealtimepaymentservicesattheretaillevelandthisinitiativewillneedtoconsidertheimplicationsofCBDCs”.TheTreasuryremarksalsodescribhowaCBDCisoneofthemanydirectionsforthegovernmenttotakeanotherbeingrealtimepaymentsystems