European Central Bank (ECB) board member Fabio Panetta has laid out a roadmap for the digital euro to be successful.
Panetta discussed whether the ECB will introduce a CBDC for retail payments in a speech at the Royal Institute of Elcano in Madrid.
According to Panetta, if payment trends in the European Union continue to do so, cash could quickly lose its central role.
“Just as the postage stamp has lost much of its usefulness with the advent of the Internet and e-mail, so may cash be obsolete in a digitized economy”
The ECB, which has been discussing CBDC since January, announced in July that it moved to the research phase, which will take another 24 months. Panetta said that at that time, the CBDC was not anticipated to replace cash.
Having a digital euro will allow people to continue to use a centralized currency in the digital age. CBDC should therefore be designed attractively enough to be widely used.
Panetta also emphasized that private payment services should not be seen as a competitor. According to him, the digital euro should expand payment solutions without excluding digital payment services.
