Payments, transfers, and other transactions in euros within the European Union are carried out using Mastercard and Visa. As a response to eliminate dependence on these intermediaries, the European Central Bank has implemented the Wero digital wallet.

This tool already has tens of millions of users in Germany, France, and Belgium. With its implementation, the region is moving toward eliminating costs associated with using US or Chinese payment systems and toward protection against sudden disruptions due to events such as armed conflicts or cyberattacks.

With Wero, “a digital wallet created by European banks and payment companies to eliminate card networks,” instant bank transfers are made, “eliminating intermediaries, reducing fees, and keeping data within Europe.”

The EU wants to free itself from payments using foreign systems, as the global dominance of Visa and Mastercard represents a vulnerability for the region, as ECB President Christine Lagarde has pointed out.

M.Pino

Source: euronews

(Reference image source: Masood Aslami on Unsplash)

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La entrada The EU needs a payment system independent of Mastercard and Visa apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The US dollar appears to be struggling in the global market. Given this decline in the most widely used currency in international trade, the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, urged the bloc’s governments to strengthen the economic foundations of the euro.

In her speech in Paris, Lagarde said that it is not enough to “resist external shocks.” The official “warned that the eurozone must transform its economic openness into resilience if it wants to maintain the currency as a pillar of stability in times of global uncertainty.”

US sollar weakness

Lagarde emphasized that the dollar’s retreat internationally “is reopening the debate about the dollar’s role as a global reserve currency. In this context, some European officials believe that the so-called global euro moment is approaching, an opportunity to consolidate its role as an alternative to the dollar.”

She also insisted that Europe needs an environment where capital flows to productive sectors, fostering investment and growth aimed at strengthening the euro’s international credibility.

This is achieved through the harmonization of regulations, tax systems, and bankruptcy laws that currently differ among countries. “Structural problems such as high energy costs, stagnant productivity, and the unwillingness of member states to finance common projects that benefit the entire union” must also be addressed.

The EU seeks to address current challenges with mechanisms such as the Savings and Investment Union, “a revamped version of the former Capital Markets Union,” to create a single capital market that “incentivizes Europeans to invest in financial assets and reduces dependence on external financing.”

M. Pino

Source: diariobitcoin

(Reference image source: Immo Wegmann on Unsplash)

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La entrada Christine Lagarde proposes reinforcing the euro against the weakness of the US dollar apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The European Central Bank (ECB) decided to cut interest rates this month by 25 basis points, to set the reference rate at 3.25 %.

This is the third adjustment by the European body, announced by the ECB Governing Council at a meeting in Ljubljana (Slovenia). Meanwhile, “the main refinancing operations (MROs) – the weekly injections of money – and the credit facility – the one that lends to banks for one day – stood at 3.4 % and 3.65 %, respectively.”

With this technical adjustment, the ECB seeks to “align short-term interest rates in the money market with the decisions of the Governing Council, as well as to remove excess liquidity from the system so that it does not interfere with the correct transmission of monetary policy.”

The slowdown in inflation in the eurozone, which was already reported in September at 1.7 %, is the result of the decrease in the price of energy, fresh food, alcohol, tobacco, among other items during the month of August.

M.Pino

Source: publico.es

(Reference image source: Dimitri Karastelev in Unsplash)

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La entrada European Central Bank cuts interest rates to 3.25 % apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The European Central Bank (ECB) applied a cut in interest rates of 25 basis points; the first since 2019, according to the director of the entity, Christine Lagarde.

The rate cut comes after a nine-month period of the highest levels in the region. In this sense, the ECB indicated that the interest rate for the main refinancing operations will drop to 4.25 %. On the other hand, the interest rate on the marginal credit facility will be reduced to 4.5 % and that on the deposit facility will decrease to 3.75 %, with effect from June 12.

According to Lagarde’s statement, core inflation has moderated, a positive sign of the weakening of pressures on this indicator. “Monetary policy has maintained restrictive financing conditions, which, by slowing demand and keeping inflation expectations firmly anchored, has contributed significantly to the decline in inflation,” the official stressed.

The ECB report reflects the latest projections by Eurosystem experts for general and underlying inflation that “have been revised upwards for 2024 and 2025 compared to the March projections. Experts now estimate that headline inflation will average 2.5 % in 2024, 2.2 % in 2025 and 1.9 % in 2026. They also predict that inflation, excluding energy and food, will average 2.8 % in 2024, 2.2 % in 2025 and 2.0 % in 2026. Economic growth is expected to advance to 0.9 % in 2024, 1.4 % in 2025 and 1.6 % in 2026.”

The next decisions regarding interest rates will depend on an approach dependent on data from the European scenario and which will set the tone for the following restrictions as well as their duration.

M.Pino

Source: Diario Financiero

(Reference image source: Charlotte Venema in Unsplash)

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La entrada ECB applies a cut in interest rates of 25 basis points apareció primero en Bitfinance.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB) stressed that an increase in interest rates will not impact the reduction in energy prices, which are responsible for 50 % of the increase in inflation on the continent.

The official made these statements in the framework of an environment of great pressure for the institution to raise interest rates. “If I raise interest rates today, it won’t lower the price of energy,” she said.

Inflation in the eurozone during the month of March registered 7.5 %, while in the United States it reached 8.5 %.

According to Lagarde, inflation in Europe “is very high” currently and, in her opinion, “50 % is related to energy prices” and the war between Russia and Ukraine increased “drastically those prices”,

Measures to face pandemic affected inflation

The president of the financial entity also stressed that the different countries in the area and the United States took measures to face the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, causing an increase in inflation of a different nature on both sides of the Atlantic.

Different central banks around the world are increasing interest rates as a measure to reduce consumption and try to stabilize the prices of products and services. While they stopped “asset purchases in the course of the third quarter and there is a high probability that we will do so early in that period”.

Lagarde is in the United States to participate in different financial meetings and in a statement to the media she made reference to the differences between the two economies, expressing that the “tightness of the labor market in the United States is clearly contributing to a possible strong inflation and a second-round effect in which prices go up, wages go up, there is a labor shortage, wages continue to go up, and that feeds back into prices.”

M. Rodríguez

Source: bancaynegocios.com

La entrada Energy prices impact European inflation apareció primero en Bitfinance.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB) warned about the risks to which the stability of the financial system is subjected due to cyber attacks. Although, so far, there has been no incident that affects the financial system could occur in the future, as it happened in Europe in hospitals, in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis and the attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

These statements were provided by the President of the European Central Bank within the framework of the opening of the fifth annual conference of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), an institution which she also directs.

According to Lagarde, an attack of this magnitude could be a matter of time. “Businesses have become more exposed to cyber attacks due to digitization and the pandemic has accelerated this trend.”

Lagarde highlights that the financial sector institutions were forced to adapt their entire technological infrastructure to the sudden demand for teleworking and the virtual relationship with their clients, which in her opinion “increased efficiency, but also vulnerability,” allowing cyber problems to spread precipitously.

Cyberattacks on the rise

Cyber ​​attacks and difficulties have become more common and sophisticated in recent years, so in 2019 and 2020 “the number of cyber incidents reported to the ECB increased by 54 % and many of them were malicious”. Lagarde believes that the “cyber attack on SolarWinds, which affected Microsoft email servers around the world, highlights the sophistication of the attacks.”

In the European Union there are approximately 22,000 financial institutions and all have increased their links with IT service providers, which is why a cyber attack could grow rapidly and turn from an operational disturbance to a problem for the financial system.

 M. Rodríguez

Source: cincodias.elpais.com

La entrada Lagarde warns of financial risks due to cyber attacks apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The European Central Bank (ECB) reported that it plans to invite the population to participate in the redesign of the euro banknotes in a process that is projected to culminate in 2024 with the acceptance of a final proposal.

In the words of Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, “after 20 years, it is time to update the appearance of our banknotes so that Europeans of all ages and backgrounds can identify with them.”

She also expressed that the euro banknotes will remain on the market for a long time.” She stressed that the banknotes “are here to stay” considering it a tangible symbol and that it represents the union in Europe, especially in times of crisis.

European Central Bank appoints advisory group

European citizens will participate in the redesign process of the new banknotes, which is why the European Central Bank appointed an advisory group made up of a specialist from each country in the area, who will be responsible for consulting people on possible issues for the bills.

Citizens will express their opinion through the discussion groups that will be created as one of the first steps in the redesign process. The group will address the different proposals or topics for future bills.

Then, the advisory group will present the list to the Governing Council of the ECB, which once the topics have been selected will call a design competition for the new banknotes and the public will be summoned again. The Governing Council will be the one to adopt the final decision and issue the order to produce and print the euro banknotes and to establish the date of their issue.

M. Rodríguez

Source: eleconomista.es

La entrada European Central Bank to redesign euro banknotes apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, insisted, in the European Parliament, that the conditions for raising interest rates will not be met in 2022, despite the fact that inflation will fall more slowly than expected and even, could remain high if energy prices continue to rise and supply chain problems “persist”.

“If we adopted a more restricted approach, it would do more harm than good,” the Frenchwoman stressed in an appearance before the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs committee in which she indicated that the conditions that the institute will not meet next year issuer has been flagged to start raising rates.

“Despite rising inflation, the outlook for inflation in the medium term remains weak and it is highly unlikely that these three conditions will be met next year,” said the president of the ECB.

The analysis of the European monetary institution, she explained, continues to predict that the price level will fall below the new “symmetric” objective of 2 % in the medium term and that explains why the ECB chooses to continue with its current monetary policy.

Lagarde has pointed out that the increase in inflation is explained by three factors: energy prices, the increase in demand that accompanies the recovery and the withdrawal of reduced VAT in Germany, which will disappear “mechanically” in January 2022.

In any case, the president of the ECB has admitted that inflation could continue at high levels if energy prices, which account for half of the price increase, continue to grow and the ‘bottlenecks’ persist in the chain of supply.

“This could lead to higher wages and consequently higher prices. But so far, we see no evidence of this in the negotiated wage data. We see that wage growth next year will be higher than this, but the risk of side effects remains,” she said.

With regard to the pandemic emergency program Lagarde admits that an “undue” tightening of the financing conditions “would not be desirable” and would represent an “unjustifiable headwind for recovery.”

Source: dpa

La entrada Lagarde says inflation will persist in 2022 apareció primero en Bitfinance.

In an online event, the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, reported that bitcoin has a high level of speculation and needs to be regulated.

At the Reuters Next conference, Lagarde reported that the popular cryptocurrency has done “some fun business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.”

Faced with such a scenario, the representative of the European bank added that “there must be regulations and this has to be applied and agreed” on a global scale.

At the conference, another important topic was also discussed, such as the Central Bank’s digital currency, the digital euro, which has been well received by the council where it was publicly consulted.

“No less than 8000 people have signed up and answered the many questions that were in that questionnaire about a digital euro,” Lagarde said. “So we are moving forward. We are not charging because it is an area in which we must be very careful and in which we need to have a system that is safe, that responds to European demand ”.

K.Villarroel

Source: diariobitcoin

La entrada ECB rates bitcoin as a speculative asset apareció primero en Bitfinance.