Fort Myers - Friday May 12, 2023: Governor DeSantis Friday signed legislation prohibiting the use of a potential Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Florida, even though there is no Central Bank Digital Currency, and no such currency has been proposed yet.
The Federal Reserve is exploring the possibility of issuing a digital version of the dollar that households could readily use instead of cash. China, among other countries, has taken steps to implement their own digital currencies. However, officials have made clear that they are not committed to following through on issuing one. And Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that the central bank wouldn’t issue any consumer-facing digital dollar without authorization from Congress.
“We haven’t decided that this is something that the financial system in the country would want or need, so that’s going to be very important,” Powell told Congress on March 8.
However fearing that a CBDC will be proposed and implemented, the Governor proposed and won passage of a measure that would prohibit its use in Florida, if it were ever to be approved by Congress.
SB 7054 would prohibit the use of a federally adopted central bank digital currency (CBDC) by excluding it from the definition of money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code. Additionally, the bill prohibits foreign-issued CBDC to protect consumers against globalist efforts to adopt a worldwide digital currency.
FedNow Initiative
The Fed is readying its “FedNow” initiative, which aims to shorten the time it takes for banks to send funds to other banks, for a planned July rollout.
FedNow is not related to any potential central bank-issued digital currency.
On Friday, after DeSantis signed SB 7054, the central bank tweeted information about FedNow, emphasizing that the service “is neither a form of currency nor a step toward eliminating any form of payment, including cash.”
Bill Prevents Tracking Firearm Purchases
The Governor Friday also signed another measure that prevents credit car companies from tracking firearm purchases. SB 214 prohibits credit card companies from using firearm-specific Merchant Category Codes and institutes a fine for violations of Florida’s consumer protections against gun owner registries. More on today’s announcement can be found here.
SB 214 combats efforts by woke credit card giants to monitor the transactions of firearm retailers through unique Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) and imposes fines for violations of Florida’s consumer protections against gun owner registries. MCC codes are retailer-specific codes, and a business that sells firearms and sporting goods would be subject to this new code, regardless of their overall sales. The use of MCCs specific to stores that sell firearms would lead to inflated statistics for firearm sales reported by creditors given that all cumulative sales would be categorized. Three major credit card companies have said that the use of MCCs would allow them to “manage risk” and assist in “combatting gun violence” by tracking consumer behavior, which is an extreme overreach into the private purchases of a consumer.