WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell don’t expect the U.S. to create a digital currency.
“Chair Powell and I have discussed this – we both agree that in the near future, in the next five years, we see no need for the Fed to issue a digital currency,” Mnuchin said during a recent House Financial Services Committee.
Some other central banks, including the People’s Bank of China, have discussed creating digital currencies. The European Central Bank is examining whether to develop its own digital currency if the private sector can’t make payments across borders faster and cheaper, the South China Morning Post reported.
The Fed isn’t developing a digital currency but is studying the costs and benefits of such a move, Powell said in a letter to Representative French Hill, an Arkansas Republican. Hill wrote to Powell in September asking about the national security implications and possible benefits.
“We are carefully monitoring the activities of other central banks to identify potential benefits that may be relevant in the US context,” Powell wrote in a Nov. 19 letter.