CBDC Round-Up

Digital Euro Thinking Evolves

The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a progress report on the digital euro. The ECB’s thinking is in development, with a final decision to be made at a future date. A notable element in the report is the work on how the digital euro may be made available and harmonised with existing payment systems. Banks may have to provide mandatory core services to end-users but will then be allowed to offer additional functionalities such as conditional payments or bill splitting.

The ECB has run focus groups around Europe and a common requirement identified is a basic function is person- to-person (P2P) payments. Offline payments are seen as useful, as are budget management tools and conditional payments, for example payment on delivery and pay-per-use.