The House Committee on Financial Services has announced its agenda for the month of June. While always subject to change, several hearings should be of note to the Fintech community.
First, the Task Force on Fintech (Financial Technology) has scheduled a hearing entitled, “Digitizing the Dollar: Investigating the Technological Infrastructure, Privacy, and Financial Inclusion Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies.” CBDCs have been discussed in the past but the concept and seeming inevitability of a digital dollar at some point in the coming years has increased the inside-the-beltway banter on how this may impact policy and what are the risks. The US Federal Reserve is currently reviewing CBDCs and is expected to hold public events on a digital dollar at some point in 2021. Much of the interest has been driven by the Facebook flop Libra, now a scaled-down stablecoin dubbed Diem, and China’s determination to be the first big economy to widely utilize a digital yuan.
This hearing is scheduled to take place on June 15 at 10 AM ET.
Towards the end of the month, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will host a hearing entitled, “America on “FIRE”: Will the Crypto Frenzy Lead to Financial Independence and Early Retirement or Financial Ruin?”
You may anticipate most witnesses at this hearing to tend towards a belief that crypto will cause financial ruin.
This hearing is expected to take place on June 30 at 10 AM ET.
Both hearings will be live-streamed on the Committee’s website. More to follow.