ECB's Cipollone: Must Be Careful That Foreign CBDCs Don't Undermine Euro's International Role

27 September 2024

By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Friday that Europe had to watch that foreign central bank digital currencies did not weaken the international importance of the euro.

Speaking at the Economics of Payments XIII Conference organised by the Austrian National Bank, Cipollone stressed the need to be ‘careful that foreign central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) do not end up eroding the international role of the euro, especially as some jurisdictions are thinking about allowing their CBDCs to be used abroad’.

The ECB had recognised this challenge and, in response, had initiated the digital euro project, which was currently in the preparation phase, he said.

‘Europe cannot stand still’ while some 63 countries are already developing retail CBDCs and figures like US presidential candidate Donald Trump are promising to make the United States a “Bitcoin superpower”, he said.

‘Bringing central bank money into a digitalised world through the digital euro would safeguard our monetary sovereignty in the digital age’, he said.

According to Cipollone, a digital euro would overcome fragmentation by offering money that would be usable for any digital payments in the euro area, foster competition and innovation and strengthen Europe’s autonomy and resilience.