The Interchange: Could Fed insecurities push FedNow to beat digital dollars to the punch?

While it's no secret U.S. payment systems have recently lacked the modernization that has taken place abroad, the recent inability by the U.S. government to widely execute its disbursement of stimulus payments through the CARES ACT, in a secure and timely fashion, now have policymakers warming up to the idea of exploring new digital tools to improve this process in the future.

Over the past 2 months, we've seen 3 (!) separate U.S. congressional hearings (one, two, three) welcome in former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo to testify about the Digital Dollar Project and its desire to accelerate the conversation around exploring a Federal Reserve issued Central Bank Digital Currency.