The Federal Reserve has been a center of attention since the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Controversy continues to swirl around the Federal Reserve’s supervision of SVB, but a particularly interesting question about the Federal Reserve’s larger efforts came the week before SVB made headlines. During a congressional hearing, Representative French Hill (R–AR) asked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell why the Federal Reserve does not allow its payments system to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Chair Powell answered, “I’m not sure why we are not 24x7.”

This instance was not the first time the Federal Reserve punted the question. Nearly a decade ago, in January 2015, the Federal Reserve announced that it intended to explore the idea of expanding its operating hours:

The Federal Reserve intends to enhance the National Settlement Service to make it more attractive as a settlement vehicle for private-sector arrangements. [The Federal Reserve plans to] explore the technology, infrastructure and operational and resource changes required to support weekend and/​or 24x7 operating hours.

Over four years later, in August 2019, the Federal Reserve announced (again) that it intended to explore the idea of expanding its operating hours:

In addition, the Board is announcing its intention to explore the expansion of Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service hours, up to 24x7x365, to facilitate liquidity management in private-sector real-time gross settlement services for faster payments and to support a wide range of payment activities, beyond those related to faster payments.

Three years later, in September 2022, the Federal Reserve stated that it is still looking into the idea of expanding its operating hours:

The Federal Reserve continues to explore expanded hours for the Fedwire Funds Service and [National Settlement Service]. Expanded hours for these services could bring broad benefits to stakeholders beyond liquidity management for instant payments.

This development is disheartening, but it is not a complete surprise. In 2019, my colleague George Selgin testified before Congress to warn that the introduction of FedNow could distract from the 24x7x365 option. It’s been four years since that testimony, and it seems George’s prediction has come to fruition.

Representative Hill is right to question the Federal Reserve’s decision making on this issue. After nearly 10 years, the Federal Reserve should finally put its cards on the table.