疫情凸显危机，美国急需升级数字化基础设施 | 双语阅读

美国需要在四类前沿数字技术上进行升级：支付，货币，身份识别以及数据管理

By Daniel Gorfine，Kabir Kumar

The U.S. needs these 4 upgrades to its digital infrastructure to effectively fight the coronavirus

By all accounts, the U.S. government moved with purpose to respond to the economic fallout triggered by the extreme public health measures taken to stem the spread of COVID-19.

众所周知，美国政府正着力应对极端的防疫措施对经济造成的冲击。

But what is clearly hampering the governmental response to the pandemic is its financial infrastructure: rickety, dated, and incapable of serving portions of the population in a targeted and timely manner. The stories of reliance on physical delivery of stimulus checks, tech bottlenecks at the SBA, and benefits systems running on a computer programming language created in the 1950s paint a grim picture.

但很明显，阻碍政府对疫情做出迅捷反应的正是它自身的财政基础设施：它们已经陈旧老化，因此难以胜任及时地服务大量民众的任务。我们最近听到的故事都是关于发送纸质支票来刺激消费的计划、美国小企业管理局的技术瓶颈，以及在1950年代生成的电脑编程语言之上运行的国家福利系统，这些故事共同向我们描绘了一副形势严峻的画卷。

This is a stark contrast to the internet and digital economy that has created resiliency, productivity, and opportunity for many Americans at a time we are restricted from acting in our physical world.

这幅画面与网络化社会以及数字化经济形成了鲜明的对比，后者创造了更多的灵活性，生产力，给予了美国人在线下世界里所得不到的机会。

As Washington shifts focus to the next phases of the coronavirus crisis response, there is more vocal discussion of infrastructure investment. Any investment in infrastructure needs to include digital financial infrastructure. It is imperative that the U.S. upgrade its financial infrastructure on four digital fronts: payments; currency; identity, and data.

当华盛顿把注意力的焦点移往新冠病毒危机应对的下一阶段之时，更多的关于基础设施投资的讨论也不绝于耳。任何形式的基建投资都应该包含数字化的财经基础设施。对于美国来说在以下四个前沿财政数字技术方面进行基础设施升级都是势在必行的：支付，货币，身份认证以及数据管理。

1. Payments: On payments, we need broadly accessible systems that are instant: as is possible in countries around the world money sent from any bank account or wallet to another account or wallet must be deposited within seconds.

支付：就支付手段而言，我们需要更广为普及的即时到账系统：就像在全球许多国家已经实行的那样，在数秒之内将任意一个账户或者钱包中的钱转入另一个账户或者钱包里。

America’s dated payment system was already hurting unbanked and under-banked Americans before this crisis: many individuals wind up using high-cost check cashers ($2 billion annual fees), small dollar “pay day” lenders ($7 billion), or are charged bank overdraft fees ($24 billion).

美国现如今的支付系统已经过时了，在此次疫情之前，这样的支付系统已经伤害了那些没有银行账户以及享受银行服务程度较低的美国人民：许多人只能使用成本高昂的现金支票（每年的总手续费高达20亿美元），“发薪日”贷款商的小型借款（年借出额达到70亿美元），或者被银行收取账户透支费用（总额达每年240亿美元）。

The Fed has the authority to make payments real time and last year launched the FedNow project. But FedNow is expected to go live by 2024 — a coronavirus vaccine might be available sooner.

美联储有权力实现即时支付，并已经于去年推出了一项名为FedNow的项目。但是FedNow预期要等到2024年才能启用－新冠疫苗都可能比它更早诞生。

The Fed could move faster, accelerating progress on FedNow by not building from scratch. One way to do that is to leverage private sector solutions through a public framework, as has been done in countries such as India, with its Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

实际上美联储可以更快地行动，它可以不用从头建设，这样就可以加速FedNow项目的推进速度。其中一种可行方式是通过利用私营部门的解决方案，将其放置于公共领域的框架之下，就好像印度这类国家所使用的统一支付界面(UPI) 一样。

The FedNow project could incorporate both bank and non-bank innovative private sector payment platforms — with the requirement that they be interoperable and compliant with network rules — in order to broaden access and approaches to real-time payments. This effort would avoid unnecessarily duplicating existing approaches, such as the real-time network launched by The Clearing House (a bank-driven clearing network for payments transactions owned by the biggest banks) in 2017, and allow for a more robust and dynamic payments landscape.

FedNow项目可以将银行和非银行的私营部门的创新性支付平台整合到一起——前提是这些平台可以彼此协作并且遵守系统规则－通过这种方法可以拓展实时支付的延展性和可得性。这些可以可以避免重复建造已有的支付体系，例如清算所在2017年所推出的实时网络（由银行推动并且由大型银行们所拥有的一种支付业务的结算网络），并且可以打造出一个更为牢固，更有活力的支付格局。

2. Currency: Beyond payment rails and processes, we need to upgrade the infrastructure of money itself. Central banks around the world have been actively exploring such system upgrades with China announcing this week that it had begun piloting its digital yuan across four major cities.

货币：在支付体系升级的进程之上，我们还需要升级我们的货币基建本身。就在本周，中国宣布已经开始在主要城市试用数字人民币，全球多国的中央银行们也都正在积极探索类似的系统升级。

While the immediate crisis period is not the time to fully implement major changes to how the government architects and moves money, it does highlight the prudence in exploring and testing new models that can substitute for the current process of sending paper checks to underbanked populations.

眼前的危急时刻并不是彻底改造政府架构或支付体系的时机，但它却凸显出探寻以及测试新模式的必要性。只有如此，我们才能改掉现在这种向银行客户以外的人群发放纸质支票的做法。

One such model championed by the Digital Dollar Project would be based on the Federal Reserve’s tokenization of the U.S. dollar, which would then be accessed through banks and regulated money transmitters. This would be a more fundamental shift in the architecture of money and go beyond electronic, account-based solutions. Policymakers should support real-world pilots now so that potential implementation can occur through a thoughtful and deliberative process and before the next crisis.

其中一种模式以数字美元项目为核心。这种模式将基于美联储所推进的美元符号化计划之上，并且通过银行和监管下的货币传递机制来获取。这将是货币建筑领域的一项更为根本性的转变，其带来的影响将在电子化，账户化解决方案的影响之上。政策制定者们应该在当下支持真实世界中的试行方案，以便潜在的思虑周详的，审慎的方案能在下一次危机到来前得以施行。

3. Identity: One of the biggest challenges the U.S. currently faces in deploying emergency relief or expanding access to financial services more broadly is actually identifying individuals to satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. (KYC is part of banking regulation requiring a financial services entity to know the identity of its customer and be sure there are no suspicious activities, including money laundering and terrorist financing.)

身份认证：在部署紧急援助基金或拓展金融服务的用户范围时，美国面临的最大挑战之一就是识别个人身份，从而满足“了解你的客户”(KYC)和“反洗钱”(AML)的要求。（KYC－“了解你的客户”是银行业的监管规定之一，要求金融服务实体清楚地识别客户身份，确认客户没有进行可疑的活动，包括洗钱和为恐怖主义筹资等行为。）

There’s a need for a 21st Century digital identity framework. To begin with, regulated financial services providers should be able to pull data through secure application programmable interfaces (APIs) from government agencies.我们需要建立属于21世纪的数字化身份识别框架体系。首先，监管下的金融服务提供者们应该能够从安全的政府应用程序接口（API）中提取数据。For example, the IRS holds data that can speed and de-risk the KYC (and underwriting) process. Legislation passed by Congress last year requires the IRS to begin building an income verification API, but the creation of these types of data interfaces need to be expedited and expanded. Services like this would have made it easier for small businesses to be authenticated when applying for SBA emergency relief funds.

举例来说，美国国税局坐拥可以加速KYC的进程，并且还能化解过程中的风险。国会在去年通过了立法，要求国税局着手打造一个用于收入验证的应用程序接口，但是这些数据界面的建造需要提速，并将覆盖范围进一步扩大。这些服务落地后可以简化小型企业在申请小企业管理局的紧急援助资金时的认证过程。

Additionally, policymakers could facilitate the sharing of KYC data between financial services providers in order to expedite the KYC process. As demonstrated by ongoing efforts in countries like Singapore, one way to do that is to allow regulated financial intermediaries to “port” existing KYC information to another bank or regulated intermediary.

另外，政策制定者还可以通过共享金融服务商的KYC数据进而加速KYC进程。例如像新加坡这样的国家一直不懈努力的，便是允许监管下的金融中介机构可以向其他银行或者受监管的中介机构“出口” 自有的KYC信息。

Longer-term, the technological and requisite government databases exist to identify and authenticate an individual instantaneously using biometric data, subject to appropriate legal safeguards. For example, an app could use facial recognition technology to automatically ping a DMV photo database to validate the end-user, but without the identity utility or any single entity amassing and storing the biometric information.

长期来看，科技型的并且是不可或缺的政府数据库将主要应用于在适当的法律保障措施之下，利用生物识别数据，瞬时识别鉴定一位个体之上。例如一个app可以运用脸部识别技术，自动登陆车管局数据库来验证终端用户，这个过程将不会征用身份信息，任何中间个体也不会积累和储存相关用户的生物识别讯息。

4. Data: The digital infrastructure concepts outlined above are largely based on access to, and movement of, data. The guiding principles for a 21st Century compact on data and privacy must be that individuals have choice and control when it comes to the use and movement of their data, and requirements should drive competition in the provision of digital services.

数据管理：上面提及的数字化基础设施概念，大部分都建立在数据的获取和输送之上。21世纪的数据和隐私契约的指导原则，应为个人在面临关乎他们自身的数据的取用和输送时，拥有选择和控制的权力，而这类需求应该促进数字化服务提供部门之间的相互竞争。

We need a modern policy framework that would provide the rules for accessing, controlling, moving, and utilizing digitized information. In the short term, we could upgrade existing data laws like Graham Leach Bliley that were enacted before the iPhone was launched in 2007.

我们需要一个现代化的法制框架，用以提供获取、掌控、输送以及运用数字讯息的规则。短期内，我们可以升级那些已经存在的与数据相关的法规，例如早于iPhone亮相， 在2007年就已经颁布的Graham Leach Bliley法规。

More immediately, we could also create a new federal Data and Digital Innovation Office (perhaps housed at the FTC) tasked with recommending regulatory guardrails that would drive competition and new customer-centric business models, research modern privacy expectations, and test more effective informed consent approaches.

我们还可以立刻就创建一个新的联邦数据及数字化创新办公室（也许可以将其置于联邦贸易委员会之中），办公室的主要任务可以包括：推荐“监管围栏”，以此激发行业竞争和更多以顾客为中心的商业模式；调研当代国民对隐私所持有的期望度，并且测试更有效率的，消息触角更敏锐的隐私权利协议方案。

We have already learned a critical lesson from this crisis: our financial infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose. As we look for ways that policy can help us through and out of this crisis, let’s invest further in technologies unbounded by physical limitations.

我们已经从这次危机中得到了深刻的教训：美国现在的金融基础设施已经不再匹配我们的需求了。借我们找寻化解疫情危机的办法和政策之机，让我们也同时在不受物理世界限制的新兴科技之上加大投资力度吧。

文章原载Market Watch，翻译：杨赛