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You will decide in the next few months whether to launch a formal project to assess the possible introduction of a digital euro. But why do you need a digital euro? We already have many tools, such as Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay…
For two main reasons: we see that people are buying more and more online and that they are using digital payment methods with growing frequency. If these two trends continue, the role of cash as a means of payment may decline significantly. But cash is the payment instrument issued by the central bank, its tangible link to citizens. Providing safe, sovereign money as a public good has been a core mission of central banks for centuries. I think we should continue to fulfil this core mission.
Second, we need to prevent the European retail payments market from being dominated by a handful of non-European players who could be relatively immune from the regulatory scrutiny and oversight of European authorities. This could result in insufficient competition and data protection. And in the absence of a European digital payments solution, our monetary and financial sovereignty would ultimately be at stake.
A digital euro would protect privacy, increase consumer choice, reduce transaction costs and support the digitalisation of the economy while making sure that sovereign money remains at the core of the financial system. And it would level the playing field by allowing all market participants to build on the digital euro to offer additional services.
From Interview with Nikkei:
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