In a letter today, the American Bankers Association urged House leaders to support a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency to individuals or using the currency for monetary policy. The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, H.R. 5403, was introduced by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and currently has 165 cosponsors. The House Financial Services Committee reported the legislation out of committee earlier this month, with the letter seeking the support of the full House.
“ABA believes strongly that a CBDC, defined as a digital form of central bank money that is widely available to the general public, is unnecessary in the United States and would present unacceptable risks and costs to the financial system,” ABA said in the letter. Among other things, the association said that a CBDC would be an advantaged competitor to retail bank deposits that would move money away from banks and into accounts at the Fed, “severely limiting the ability of commercial banks to make loans that power economic growth in communities across the country.”
