(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell met with the chief executive of cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase Global Inc on May 11, days before the central bank chief announced plans for a white paper examining whether the Fed should develop a digital currency of its own.
The meeting was made public on Friday with the monthly release of Powell’s meeting calendar. The record showed that the in-person meeting was also attended by former U.S. House of Representative speaker Paul Ryan, who is now with Solamere Capital.
On May 20, days after the meeting, Powell said the Fed would release a discussion paper this summer “outlining our current thinking on digital payments, with a particular focus on the benefits and risks associated” with establishing a central bank digital currency.
(Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
