Credit unions express concern about the cost of creating a CBDC
A lobbying group operating in the US has spoken out against the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country. The project's costs, in the opinion of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU), outweigh its "hypothesised advantages."
The senior counsel for research and policy at NAFCU, Andrew Morris, wrote a public letter to the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday claiming that the costs would outweigh the benefits and that there are other ways to achieve the same goals. The letter was written in response to the Department's request for comments (RFC) on digital assets.
Although the letter's complete text is not yet available, the NAFCU release notes that it called attention to private and public sector payments initiatives to show the existence of less disruptive alternatives for achieving payments improvement and highlighted the role credit unions already play in terms of assisting underserved populations.
It should come as no surprise that the lobby group views supporting credit union involvement as the primary option to CBDC.
Additionally, the letter makes a number of recommendations that should assist the Commerce Department in improving American competitiveness abroad, including "support for responsible innovation" within the credit union sector and the application of consumer protection laws to organisations that promote consumer engagement with digital assets.
According to a May letter from NAFCU to the Federal Reserve, “the Federal Reserve's twin goal of creating maximum sustainable employment and stable prices will be distracted by the management of a CBDC.”
The vast majority of experts who took part in the United States Federal Reserve conference on the "International Roles of the U.S. dollar" think that a U.S. dollar CBDC would not significantly alter the world's monetary system.
