As noted, the President yesterday issued two executive orders demanding significant change to the federal payment system. In this report, we assess the financial-market and banking-system implications of the orders, one of which emphatically states that nothing done to enhance digitalization may be construed to authorize a central bank digital currency. The purpose of the orders is to reduce fraud, with the Administration saying that GAO has calculated annual federal losses due to fraud to be as much as $521 billion, some of which is doubtless independent of payment-system operations……
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