Fed study on digital currency leans toward role for banks

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve released a highly anticipated report on central bank digital currencies that suggested it is leaning toward having banks and other financial firms, rather than the Fed itself, manage digital accounts for customers. A central bank digital currency would differ in some key ways from the online and digital payments that millions of Americans already conduct. It wouldn’t necessarily require the user to have a bank account. The Fed’s paper, while stressing that no final decisions have been reached, said it would likely follow an “intermediate model” for a digital dollar under which banks or payment firms would create accounts or digital wallets.