ECB’s Panetta: Need to Ensure Interoperability of CBDCs to Improve Payments

6 May 2024

By Isabel Teles – FRANKFURT (Econostream) – European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta on Monday said that many central banks were considering central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and that it was necessary to ensure the interoperability of CBDCs to guarantee an adequate payments process.

In a panel discussion at the BIS Innovation Summit 2024, Panetta, who heads the Banca d’Italia, said, ‘In order to offer users a seamless payment experience both domestically and internationally, we should ensure that CBDCs are interoperable with existing payments systems but also with other CBDCs.’

Using CBDCs could improve cross-border payments, as the speed and transparency of the transactions would be increased, while costs would be reduced, he said.

‘Overall, the ultimate goal for a central bank issuing CBDC is to provide additional opportunities for intermediaries to meet the demand of people and market participants for financial services that are efficient, safe and affordable’, he said.

The Eurosystem Digital Euro project had evidence indicating that the CBDCs distribution should be similar to cash, he said, noting that it demanded the engagement of a range of stakeholders.

‘CBDC should be issued by central banks and distributed by supervised intermediaries to their clients as it is currently the case for cash’, he said. ‘Cash is used by central banks but is distributed by commercial banks.’