The Federal Reserve Bank vice chairman spoke at the Philadelphia Fed’s fintech event on Sept. 8 about what the central bank’s role is in financial innovation. Research and supervision was the short answer, with a nod to the FedNow Service.
Along with the standard disclaimer about it making no decisions without congressional authorization, Barr provided an overview of the Fed’s “current focus” of central bank digital currency (CBDC) research. He characterized it as “basic research […] that might support a CBDC payments backbone, or for other purposes in the existing payments system.”