Fed chair says he will not launch a digital dollar

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told US lawmakers in the Senate that the department would not issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC) while he was chair.Speaking at a Feb. 11 Senate Banking Committee meeting, Powell responded to questions from Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, whose 2024 election may have been influenced by ads funded by crypto-backed political action committees. The Fed chair confirmed that the department would never issue a CBDC while he was in charge — his term is scheduled to end in May 2026.The Senate hearing, focused on a semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, included Powell saying the Fed would take a “fresh look” at debanking policies in response to questions from Senators Tim Scott and Cynthia Lummis. The committee met on Feb. 5 to discuss claims government entities pressured some financial institutions into halting services to crypto firms.Powell doesn’t seem to have ever made such an explicit guarantee to US lawmakers that the Fed would not issue a CBDC. In a March 2024 Senate Banking Committee hearing — under a Democratic-controlled chamber — the Fed chair said the US was “nowhere near recommending or let alone adopting a central bank digital currency in any form.”Crypto-related priorities in Republican-controlled governmentRepublican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, Senate, and the White House seem to have made preventing the release of a US dollar-pegged CBDC a policy priority as the party holds a trifecta in government. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 23 prohibiting “the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use” of a digital dollar — though many legal experts have questioned his authority.An anti-CBDC bill introduced by Representative Tom Emmer passed the House largely along partisan lines in May 2024 and was referred to the Senate Banking Committee. It’s unclear whether the chamber will vote on the legislation in the 119th session of Congress.