The Federal Reserve has set up a new system for holding press conferences by telephone, increasing the central bank's flexibility to explain an interest rate hike in months when one of its quarterly press sessions is not already scheduled.
The U.S. central bank held a conference call with reporters on Wednesday to test the system, a new technology that uses a PIN identifier to limit the number of phone lines to one per authorized media outlet.
Though the Fed already has the capacity to hold a telephone press conference, announcement of the new system comes amid speculation the central bank would not hike rates at a meeting of its policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee when it did not have an on-site press conference already scheduled at which to elaborate on its decision.