President Logan introduces FDIC Chairman Travis Hill at payments conference

Good afternoon. I’m Lorie Logan, and I proudly serve as the president and chief executive officer here at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We are happy to partner with the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law to host the “Payments of the Future” symposium. This event convenes scholars, practitioners and industry experts to explore emerging topics and trends in digital payments.

For those of you who may be new to the Dallas Fed, welcome. The Dallas Fed represents the Eleventh District, which represents Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico. We are one of 12 regional reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System. The 12 Federal Reserve banks serve as the local regional operational arms of the Federal Reserve System, providing on-the-ground economic insights, supervising member banks and processing payments to ensure the economy functions smoothly across all regions of the United States. Together, we are the nation’s central bank.

In today's evolving financial landscape, digital payments have grown rapidly. As the Federal Reserve System explores emerging technologies such as tokenization and smart contracts, we remain focused on balancing innovation with safety. The panels designed for this symposium focus on the future of payments while keeping safety at the forefront of these developments. This afternoon’s discussion on stablecoin regulation highlighted the important balance between enabling innovation and ensuring appropriate safeguards in private digital money. Tomorrow's panels will explore other timely topics:

• How to protect financial privacy in an increasingly data-driven environment.
• The evolution of negotiable instruments as they transition to digital formats.
• And how to ensure that payment innovation promotes financial access.

At the Federal Reserve, these discussions help inform our work as we support payment systems that are innovative, efficient and accessible to all. So, I thank you all for being here and for your shared perspectives.

Now, it is my pleasure to introduce today’s keynote, Travis Hill, who will dive deeper into this topic. Travis was confirmed in December to a five-year term as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and began his term earlier this month after serving as acting chairman for the past year. Travis previously served as FDIC vice chairman for two years. Before that, he served as deputy to the chairman for policy and as senior advisor to the chairman, overseeing and coordinating regulatory and policy initiatives and advising the chairman on regulatory and policy matters. Prior to his time at the FDIC, Travis was senior counsel at the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he drafted and negotiated numerous bipartisan bills. He also served as a policy analyst at Regions Financial Corp. Travis holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in economics and political science, as well as a law degree from Georgetown University.

Please join me in welcoming Travis to the stage. Thank you.