ECB Has "No Plans" to Issue Own Digital Currency

The European Central Bank (ECB) asserted that it has “no plans” to issue its own digital currency.

ECB President Mario Draghi himself told the European Parliament just recently.

Answering a query by MEP Jonás Fernández, Draghi conveyed that “substantial development” was still needed in the essential technology behind cryptocurrencies before the Central Bank would even consider making use of them.

“The ECB and the Eurosystem currently have no plans to issue a central bank digital currency,” he said:

“Nonetheless, we are carefully analysing the potential consequences of issuing such a currency as a complement to cash.”

Elucidating why no plans were being drawn up at the ECB, Draghi drew attention to those same elements.

“...The technologies which could potentially be used to issue a central bank digital currency [...] have not yet been thoroughly tested and require substantial further development before they could be used in a central bank context,” he told Fernández, adding:

“With regard to the central bank administering individual accounts for households and companies, this would imply that the central bank would enter into competition for retail deposits with the banking sector and lead to potentially substantial operational costs and risks.”

He also said that at the moment, there was “no concrete need” to issue an additional currency within the eurozone, claiming demand for cash banknotes “continues to grow” in the EU28.

Draghi emphasized the cautious position the 28-member bloc has often held on bank-issued cryptocurrency, in contrast to developments being made by countries such as Russia and China.

Earlier in the year, a joint report from the ECB and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stressed “side effects” of a possible launch of such a currency, also considering the need for more research right before.

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