FTC Commissioner: The Libra announcement should encourage the Fed to start FedNow as soon as possible

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Rohit Chopra believes that the announcement of the Libra stablecoin project should encourage the Federal Reserve to act quickly and launch its own system for making payments in real time around the clock.

On November 7, Chopra sent a letter to the U.S. Central Bank approving his plans to create the "FedNow service", while criticizing the Facebook initiative, the development of which first became known in June.

Uncertain and meager details of the shadow global central bank's technology platform have caused concern in the international community, particularly because of the current scandals and the tarnished reputation of Facebook," he writes. - Solving the entire list of issues raised by Facebook will take time. I share the concerns of Chairman Jerome Powell and Governor Lael Brainard.

Like some other officials, Chopra is proposing to fight the looming threat with a government-controlled payment system that can meet consumer needs.

"Regardless of the final result of the Libra project, this proposal emphasizes the interest in real-time payments and the need for urgent intervention by the Federal Reserve. Large private firms from Wall Street and Silicon Valley are looking for opportunities to leverage their influence on the market by controlling critical infrastructure, so it is now more important than ever for the Board of Governors to implement this solution quickly," he adds.

Consumers, according to Chopra, have accumulated a "restrained sense of dissatisfaction" because of high bank fees, while "other real-time technologies" are spreading rapidly.

What form FedNow will take is unknown. Presumably, the service will be available to corporate and retail users and will give them additional opportunities for making payments. The FedNow issue has been under study at least since 2018, and the launch of the system should take place not earlier than 2024.

Regarding Libra, Powell previously said, "I don't think they can continue unless the regulators, in their majority, are satisfied with the way in which the company is dealing with money laundering and similar issues. A number of the doubts I raised at the beginning, including data protection, consumer privacy, and the like, need to be addressed very carefully.