29 November 2021

EBF contribution to the ongoing debate on a Central Bank Digital Euro #3: How does a digital euro fit the payments landscape?

The digital euro project investigation phase is set to define what a digital euro could actually be and the purposes and use cases it could fulfill. However, it is already clear that a digital euro would impact the European payments landscape.

 The objective of increased European sovereignty can only be achieved with competitive payment methods offered to the public by European PSPs. One of the main goals of the starting investigation by the ECB should be to define whether a digital euro would support this objective and how in practice it would add value to the EU payments landscape. This would provide a very welcome clarification on how a digital euro will fit Europe’s already existing efficient, secure and well-functioning electronic payments market.

Substantial efforts have been deployed by policy makers and financial industry to create a Single Market for payments up to today. The EBF #3 paper takes a closer look at the expected impact by the digital euro on this Market, and what design aspects are essential to consider in return.

Full paper

EBF

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