EBAday 2022: EU wrestles with digital euro privacy concerns in targeted consultation

finextra.com:

The consultation will run until the 14th of June, and considers whether issues including users needs and expectations for a digital euro, the digital euro’s role for the EU’s retail payments and digital economy, the application of AML-CFT rules, privacy and data protection aspects, and international payments. The EU has yet to make a decision about whether or not to issue a digital currency at all, and the consultation is a strong precursor to any decision or law drafting rumoured to come out early in 2023.

Throughout 2021 public discussions were dominated by concerns that CBDC would bear a negative impact on privacy across the EU, with the ECB’s Public Survey revealing that it was the number one concern that Europeans want to protect should plans for a digital euro go ahead. More recent research from the ECB indicates that this concern is less of a dominating force in CBDC discussions, as individuals begin accept a certain degree of ‘trade-offs’, along with the genuine concern of fully anonymous digital currencies.

The document reads that this “targeted consultation” is intended to complement the ECB’s public consultation. It aims to: collect further information from industry specialists, payment service providers (including credit institutions, payment and e-money institutions), payment infrastructure providers, developers of payment solutions, merchants, merchant associations, consumer associations, retail payments regulators, and supervisors, anti-money laundering (AML) supervisors, Financial Intelligence Units, and other relevant authorities and experts.