MPE 2024: What will be the impact of a digital euro?
In the presentation, Witlox outlined the benefits of a digital euro that will complement cash in Europe, detailing that it would strengthen strategic autonomy by reducing dependence on non-European payment providers and offer another form of trusted and secure transactions for people in Europe.
Witlox stated that the digital euro is being designed to operate online and offline, and will include privacy and resilience features to prevent fraud and secure transactions.
“We will build something that is fit for the future and is state of the art. It will focus on efficient payments, and on three use cases for peer-to-peer and in-store payments, as well as for e-commerce payments which will be accessible for euro area consumers. The digital euro will make sure that merchants can trust that if a consumer wants to buy something and pay, they can, and with ensured high conversion rates. The digital euro offers instant settlement, so the moment the transaction is done, the digital euro will have moved from the payer to the payee. That's an instant receipt of the funds.”
On the future of the digital euro, Witlox stated that project teams interacted with market holders, the European Retail Payments Board, civil organisations, and central banks during the investigation phase to design the digital currency. The digital euro has been in the preparation phase since November 2023 and is being developed alongside regulation. The next phase will likely begin in 2025.
What will the digital euro accomplish?
Speaking on a panel, discussing the potential of the digital euro, were Evelien Witlox of ECB, David Birch from CHYP, Michael Salmony of ETPPA, and Fredrik Rydbeck of Sveriges Rksbank, moderated by founder of Payments Solved, Nilixa
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