Overview
- At the Fed’s Oct. 21 Payments Innovation Conference, Waller said the central bank intends to “embrace the disruption” and welcomed crypto and DeFi into the payments dialogue.
- The proposed payment accounts would offer direct access to Fed payment rails with restrictions such as no interest, no daylight overdrafts, no discount-window access, and potential balance caps.
- The concept is at an exploratory stage, with the Fed beginning stakeholder outreach and signaling a streamlined review process for lower‑risk accounts.
- Access would be limited to legally eligible entities, leaving open questions about which crypto and fintech firms qualify even as outlets report potential benefits for applicants like Ripple, Custodia, Kraken, Circle, Paxos, and Anchorage.
- The one-day conference in Washington, D.C., gathered leaders from Wall Street, crypto, and tech, with panels on stablecoins, tokenization, and AI, and was livestreamed on federalreserve.gov and YouTube.