FedNow

[MacGyver]

One more brief note I guess on having antiquated infrastructure as a limiting factor in the economy.  The US is responsible for about 25% of the world’s GDP.  We are the world’s reserve currency. That is - the world trades most major commodities in dollars.  You and I benefit from that.

There are a lot of groups that would very much like to *not* have the dollar as the reserve currency. To be a 21st century player - you kind of need to not make other global entities wait a week while your systems catch up.  

[Omega]

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

This is from the CBC - so maybe if you move to Canada, I guess?

The Federal Reserve is concerned (by law) with liquidity amongst financial institutions.  They don’t have visibility into individual customers - and don’t care.

Now, banks have to comply with OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) as instituted by the Treasury.  That’s very much concerned with terrorists.  But the key word in OFAC is *foreign*.  As a citizen it doesn’t apply to you. 

Yes, I know where it is from, but it goes to show the control an out of control government can assert.  As to OFAC, you can just forget the foreign part because as you and all of the US not already in the know found out, many federal three letter agencies do not care if they are catching foreigners or citizens in it's wide nets.  Now we know for a fact they are listening and recording our communications, and that many people are searching their classified databases.  Now some want to have them having direct control of the flow of private transactions?  

[No_0ne]

30 minutes ago, Omega said:

Now some want to have them having direct control of the flow of private transactions?  

I think what MacGyver is saying, that's already either happening, or within the realm of possibility.  The new system, as I understand it, simply updates (and to some extent replaces) what's already in place ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACH_Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedACH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Payments_Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clearing_House_Payments_Company

Each of these articles have links to several primary sources as well.

[Grayfox54]

I won't even pretend to know anything about the world of banking and finance. But my gut felling is that if .gov gets involved, they're gonna screw it all up. 

[No_0ne]

50 minutes ago, Grayfox54 said:

I won't even pretend to know anything about the world of banking and finance. But my gut felling is that if .gov gets involved, they're gonna screw it all up. 

You may be right, however that happened decades ago already ...