Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell today said that his agency is “not equipped to service individual commercial and retail accounts” and that doing so is currently “not permitted under law.” His comments come amid renewed calls from some lawmakers for legislation that would enable the Fed to offer banking accounts and services directly to consumers—an idea strongly opposed by ABA.
“That’s never been our role and it’s really not been the role of other central banks,” he told members of the Senate Banking Committee. “It would be quite a dramatic change in our role in the economy, and one that would require very careful thought.”