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Our investigation into a digital euro started more than a year ago.
Closely involving the European Parliament in the investigation phase has been a priority for the ECB from day one.
Over the course of 2022, we regularly discussed key design options in this Committee.[1] Your views provided valuable input to our work and, together with the feedback from other public and private stakeholders[2], allowed us to make steady progress.
Such interactions are essential in ensuring that public money addresses the preferences and needs of citizens and businesses in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
People’s payment behaviour is changing at an unprecedented speed: over the past three years, cash payments in the euro area have dropped from 72% to 59%, with digital payments becoming increasingly popular (Chart 1).[3] In the Netherlands and Finland, for example, cash is used only in one fifth of the transactions. At the same time, people appreciate the option to pay with public money. Most see it as important or very important to always have that choice.
Chart 1: Digital payments further on the rise but cash remains an important option
Source: Study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE).
A digital euro would respond to this growing preference for electronic payments by making public money available also in digital form. Together with cash, a digital euro would offer Europeans access to means of payment that allow them to pay everywhere in the euro area, free of charge. Being easily accessible and convenient to use would support adoption and financial inclusion.
In my remarks today I will discuss how the digital euro could help enable us to use our money whenever, wherever we need it throughout the euro area.[4]
I will conclude my remarks with the work agenda for 2023, when we will conclude our investigation phase and the European Commission will present its legislative proposal.[5]
The ECB is at the global forefront of the efforts by central banks to design state-of-the-art digital payment solutions for both retail and wholesale transactions.[6]
Payments are part and parcel of everyday life: we all usually carry at least one payment instrument, be it coins, banknotes, a credit card or a mobile phone.
Our priority for the digital euro project has always been clear: to preserve the role of central bank money in retail payments by offering an additional option for paying with public money, including where this is not possible today, for example in e-commerce...
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