Waller Sees Potential in Emerging Payments Technologies

At Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller spoke about the potential of emerging technologies to improve payments.

Waller highlighted AI, stablecoins, tokenization, and distributed-ledger technology as promising areas for innovation.

'I see stablecoins, for example, as simply another choice available to consumers and businesses,' he said.

He noted that these technologies could make payments faster, more efficient, and more flexible if they meet safeguards for consumers and the financial system.

The Federal Reserve is conducting hands-on research into tokenization, smart contracts, and artificial intelligence in payments to understand private-sector applications and possible upgrades to its payment infrastructure.

Waller emphasized that wider adoption would depend on interoperability, cybersecurity, anti-money-laundering controls, resilience, and consumer protection.