From The Register, October 31:
Because fewer people like banknotes, and payment sovereignty is a problem
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has decided the bloc needs a digital version of the Euro, and ordered work that could see it enter circulation in 2029.
Europe initiated a “preparation phase” for a Digital Euro in November 2023. Yesterday, the ECB said that effort succeeded. ECB President Christine Lagarde said developing a Digital Euro will make the currency “fit for the future.”
Asked why the European Union needs a Digital Euro, and if it is a solution in search of a problem, Lagarde said “The key points for me are : Money is a public good; central banks are the custodian of that public good; and central money issued by central banks has to have its digital form, because we're moving into a different era where not everybody will want necessarily to have banknotes.”
A digital currency would also reduce the European Union’s reliance on payment service providers from outside the bloc.
Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Bank of Italy, pointed out that European banks represent only a third of digital payments activities within the Eurozone, and that “Two thirds of digital payments in the Euro area are intermediated by non-European companies, both for digital payments at the point of sale and digital payments online.”
“The reason why this is so is that European banks did not agree until now on ways to provide their services to the entire Euro area,” he said. “They don't have what is called in technical terms a ‘rail’, the infrastructure to provide, to offer their digital payment services to all European citizens.”....
....MUCH MORE
As with so many things, the future is closer than it appears.
