WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank is nearing a decision on whether to develop its own real-time payments system to compete with industry.
In a press conference, Powell said there is ample precedent for the Fed to have a central role if it so chooses.
“We put out a proposal in October of last year and we got quite a lot of comments that were overwhelmingly favorable,” Powell said. “I would point out that in our payments system, in many places the Fed operates alongside private-sector operators — for example, in wholesale payments, [automated clearing house] and checking. So it wouldn't be unusual or out of keeping with how we've done things in the past.”
Powell added that the agency has been deliberating whether to develop its own payment system and that a final decision on the matter will be announced “soon.”
![Fed Chairman Jerome Powell](https://arizent.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/748a44c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/740x493!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsource-media-brightspot.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fc9%2F0e%2F602820194659948343af53c59bf5%2Fpowell-jerome-bl-073119.jpg)
The Fed has been
The
Powell also said that the Fed’s board of governors is “not considering” lifting a growth cap on Wells Fargo
“The problems that arose at Wells Fargo around risk management and the way they dealt with the consumer were actually pretty deep,” Powell said. “I think the company realizes that. They haven't been fixed quickly. Frankly, we didn't expect them to be fixed quickly.”
Tim Sloan
“We have an enforcement action in place. The company is working away at addressing it,” Powell said. “They take it seriously. They do see it as we do as something that has to go deep and we'll lift the growth cap when we're satisfied.”
Powell’s comments came as the Federal Open Market Committee decided to lower the federal funds rate 25 basis points to between 2% and 2.25%, the first time the Fed has lowered its interest rate since the financial crisis. In October 2008, the FOMC dropped rates to nearly zero, where they remained until December 2015, after which the Fed gradually raised rates in an effort to normalize monetary policy.
Rob Blackwell contributed to this article.