Authors: Michael Junho Lee and Antoine Martin
-
-
The New York Innovation Center bridges the worlds of finance, technology, and innovation and generates insights into high-value central bank-related opportunities.
Do you have a request for information and records? Learn how to submit it.
Learn about the history of the New York Fed and central banking in the United States through articles, speeches, photos and video.
-
-
-
The Governance & Culture Reform hub is designed to foster discussion about corporate governance and the reform of culture and behavior in the financial services industry.
Need to file a report with the New York Fed? Here are all of the forms, instructions and other information related to regulatory and statistical reporting in one spot.
The New York Fed works to protect consumers as well as provides information and resources on how to avoid and report specific scams.
-
-
-
The New York Innovation Center bridges the worlds of finance, technology, and innovation and generates insights into high-value central bank-related opportunities.
The growing role of nonbank financial institutions, or NBFIs, in U.S. financial markets is a transformational trend with implications for monetary policy and financial stability.
The New York Fed offers the Central Banking Seminar and several specialized courses for central bankers and financial supervisors.
-
-
Staff Reports
Programming Money Without Programmable Money
Number 1180
February 2026
February 2026
JEL classification: E42, E58, G28
Programmability is at the heart of ongoing work on the future of money and payments by central banks around the world. Despite its potential, there is growing concern that programmability conflicts with the provision of “good” money. This paper overviews key principles of “good” money and argues that the discourse on programmability inadequately differentiates between programmable money, which is generally negatively viewed, and programmable payments, which is generally accepted as part of the future. We provide a framework for programmable monetary systems that sharply distinguishes between programmable money and programmable payments. We show that our framework nests a broader set of financial arrangements and revisit the debate on programmability in the design of monetary systems.
Author Disclosure Statement(s)
Michael Junho Lee
The author declares that (s)he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Antoine Martin
I declare that I have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
The author declares that (s)he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
Antoine Martin
I declare that I have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
Suggested Citation:
Lee, Michael Junho, and Antoine Martin. 2026. “Programming Money Without Programmable Money.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1180, February. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1180
Lee, Michael Junho, and Antoine Martin. 2026. “Programming Money Without Programmable Money.” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, no. 1180, February. https://doi.org/10.59576/sr.1180
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Statement. You can learn more about how we use cookies by reviewing our Privacy Statement. 
