ECB steps up preparations for the introduction of a digital euro

The European Central Bank (ECB) has intensified work on the hypothetical introduction of a digital euro, an issue on which a public consultation will begin on October 12 with a parallel experimentation phase. Meanwhile, the Eurosystem will continue to issue cash.

“The euro belongs to Europeans and our mission is to safeguard it,” said Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, for whom the role of the institution is to ensure trust in money, which means ensuring that the euro is suitable for the era. digital. “We must be prepared to issue a digital euro if necessary,” she said.

In this sense, the institution has indicated that a digital euro “would be a complement to cash, not a substitute”, highlighting that it would be an electronic form of central bank money that all citizens and companies could use as banknotes, but in digital format to make daily payments quickly, easily and safely.

“We should be prepared to issue a digital euro as long as the evolution of our environment makes it necessary. This means that we must already be prepared for it”, said Fabio Panetta, Italian representative on the ECB’s board of directors and chairman of the Working Group on High Level on Central Bank digital money. 

This working group, involving experts from the ECB and the 19 national central banks of the euro area, have identified possible scenarios that would require the issuance of a digital euro, including an increase in the demand for electronic payments in the euro area, a significant decline in the use of cash as a means of payment in the region, the creation of private means of payment on a global scale that could generate regulatory problems, among others.

Source: dpa