<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, shut down expectations for </span>a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be issued in the near future. </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The central bank leader said that the U.S. has “not decided to proceed” with the issuance of a CBDC for the time being. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We do not see ourselves making that decision for some time," </span>he said Tuesday, speaking remotely on a panel about the role of central banks in digital markets during a conference in Paris.</p> <p>Instead, the U.S. central bank will be working in collaboration with Congress and the executive branch to evaluate the policy and the technological issues. </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Powell went on to outline a multi-year period during which the Fed would focus on "building public confidence in our analysis and ultimate conclusions, which we certainly haven’t reached yet.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Powell did elaborate that, if adopted, a U.S. CBDC would have several key characteristics: intermediated, privacy-protected, identity-verified, and interoperable.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We would be looking to balance privacy protection with identity verification, which has to be done in today’s traditional banking system as well," </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Powell said referring to the </span><a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-20220120.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">discussion paper</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> issued in January this year, where the Federal Reserve took the first step towards a CBDC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard </span><a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/168366/fed-needs-to-answer-key-questions-around-digital-dollar-brainard" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that the central bank was seeking answers to questions that would determine the need for a CBDC. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a New York conference hosted by the Bank Policy Institute, Brainard emphasized that the Fed’s investigation will determine the future financial system infrastructure, but said that a digital dollar is not "particularly relevant today."</span></p><br /><span class="copyright"><p>© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.</p> </span>