Search Results
Briefing
Motives Matter: Examining Potential Tension in Central Bank Digital Currency Designs
As a new central bank liability, central bank digital currency (CBDC) has the potential to address various issues within current payments and financial systems. The motivation behind a CBDC will determine how it is designed; a CBDC designed to achieve one goal, such as broader financial inclusion, may have difficulty achieving other objectives.
Briefing
Inclusion by Design: Crafting a Central Bank Digital Currency to Reach All Americans
One motivation for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is financial inclusion—bringing unbanked Americans into the payments system. To meet this goal, a CBDC would have to be designed to meet the specific needs of the diverse unbanked population.
Working Paper
Refining the Definition of the Unbanked
We propose a new way to classify individuals without a bank account, accounting for their actual interest in being banked. Analogous to how unemployment statistics are defined and estimated, we differentiate the individuals that do not have a bank account and would like to have one (the “unbanked”) from individuals that do not have a bank account and are not interested in having one (the “out of banking population”). Using FDIC data, we show the evolution over time of these new measures and show that the two groups differ in policy-relevant ways. While the unbanked mostly cite ...
Journal Article
Banking on Distributed Ledger Technology: Can It Help Banks Address Financial Inclusion?
Despite its promise, distributed ledger technology is unlikely to draw unbanked consumers into the financial mainstream