Episode summary
Martha Miller and Todd Fox on the Future of Payments and Financial Innovation | Macro Musings
Macro Musings
· · Hosts: David Beckworth · Guests: Martha Miller, Todd Fox
Summary
Todd Fox of Visa and Martha Miller of Fidelity argue that payments innovation is being driven by a fast-moving technology stack, while regulation and policy must adapt more slowly and deliberately. They say the real challenge is not just building new rails, but understanding how new systems change trust, settlement, compliance, and customer expectations in practice. Both emphasize that public-private dialogue matters because regulators, central banks, and firms each hold different pieces of the picture.
The discussion centers on stablecoins, tokenization, and institutional experimentation. Fox says Visa was early to support stablecoin settlement and sees use cases in cross-border money movement and liquidity management. Miller says Fidelity entered crypto and digital assets by experimenting with Bitcoin and later launching its own stablecoin to understand the plumbing and serve institutional use cases within a regulated perimeter. Both stress that the strongest applications are the ones that solve real problems, not just those that are novel.
They also frame Open USD as a consortium-style effort that could work because interoperability and governance matter. Fox contrasts it with Libra, arguing that dollar backing, clearer regulation, and financial-institution participation make the difference. Miller and Fox close by saying the future depends on technology-neutral rules that preserve trust while leaving room for 24/7 markets, smart contracts, and new forms of digital delivery.
Key takeaways
- Fox says Visa sees stablecoins as a practical tool for settlement and cross-border liquidity, not just a retail payments experiment.
- Miller says Fidelity’s digital-asset strategy is built around institutional use cases and a regulated stablecoin, not speed for its own sake.
- Both argue that consortium models can work when interoperability is the core value proposition, especially for systems like Open USD.
- Fox says the main policy question is not the rail itself but the rights, rules, and liabilities attached to money as it moves.
- Miller says technology-neutral rules are crucial so regulation can endure even as communication and payment methods change.
Notable quotes
“The simplest thing in payments is to move money from point A to point B”
“The hardest thing is to figure out what rights, rules, and privileges attach to that money as it's moving”
“If the value comes from interoperability, then consortium value skyrockets”
“innovation for innovation's sake is a fast drain on an R&D budget”
“we're entering this era now where that's getting hard not just because of the new technology, but because of geopolitical fragmentation”
How the episode opens
Well, thank you Peter for having us here to do a live recording of the Macro Musings podcasts. Now Peter is a look into the audience, I see a number of a number of former guests. In fact, if you're a former guest on the podcast, raise your hand.
Wow, so we got at least half the room here filled with former Macro Musings guests and this is fantastic. In fact, Peter had me here earlier this year and he grilled me. I took the other side of the microphone.
So Peter, this is a specially uh special treat for me because we're going to get someone who's not either an academic in the public sector. We're going to get some private sector people who can actually tell us what it's like in the real world, where rubber meets the road. So we are delighted to have Todd Fox, the president of the Visa Institute, and Martha Miller, head of Global Policy for Fidelity.
So thank you for joining the podcast today.
Absolutely, delighted to be here.
It's great to have you on and and I want to begin by by stepping back and and referring to what I just said about my conversations typically involve people in public policy, academics, people who worked in government. And so this is really one of the first shows where I've had two people who actually are on the policy side from the private sector. And I want to start with you Todd, what are we missing on the podcast in Washington D.C.?
I'm based in D.C. What do our conversations miss when we don't listen to people like you?
Well, I think when you're on the cusp of a major platform shift in the way the systems that power global finance, when those systems are changing, it's hard to keep pace with what is happening in the world of innovation if you're not talking to people that are inside the companies that are actually building and deploying that technology.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- public-private dialogue
- future of payments
- stablecoins
- financial innovation
- balancing innovation and risk
Companies and tickers mentioned
- V
- Fidelity Investments
- Visa
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Macro Musings, this episode and its artwork belong to Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
