Wells Fargo Says an American CBDC Could Be Designed, Approved and Launched in Three to Five Years
Strategists at a Wells Fargo subsidiary think the US could design and release a central bank digital currency (CBDC) within the next five years. In a new report, Wells Fargo Advisors’ head of real asset strategy John LaForge and investment strategy analyst Mason Mendez say that the US is studying the potential of a CBDC after President Joe Biden signed an executive order authorizing the Federal Reserve to begin looking into CBDC technology. “We suspect it will be some years before a US CBDC is de signed , approved, and used. Our best guess would be three to five years. The release of FedNow, a new fast payments program (not a blockchain-related technology) launched in July 2023, might give us some clues on the timeline, though. The Fed formally started studying the potential of FedNow in September 2013 – nearly 10 years before its release. While we are not expecting a CBDC release to take 10 years, we do believe it could be a few more years before a final d...