The Interchange: Housekeeping

A lighter update today as we put the final bow on our three-month project that was 'A Global Look at Central Bank Digital Currencies' whitepaper. The report is over 180 pgs, which you can read here, but one small take that I wanted to highlight for this column was this:

Last month, ahead of the CBDC report launch, The Block produced a CBDC webinar where the assistant vice president in the secure payments group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Robert Bench, acknowledged the role that technology may play in the future of the dollar.

“We understand that there is a lot happening on the technology front that could aid the mission of the Federal Reserve. It’s also possible that something could happen that might make a technological upgrade of the dollar an imperative. We are learning from the rest of the world that problems can arise or challenges can arise that would need the Federal Reserve to respond — potentially with new technology and potentially with a central bank digital currency.” said Bench.