The ECB’s project aims for a potential 2029 go-live to maintain central bank money in the digital economy and reduce reliance on non-European payment providers.
Italian banks have shown support for the development of the digital euro, but they consider the cost curve should be flattened.
As per Reuters, Marco Elio Rottigni, general manager of the Italian Banking Association, said lenders support the project for “digital sovereignty” but warned implementation is capital-intensive and should be staged to match banks’ tech budgets.
As Crypto News Australia reported, the European Central Bank (ECB) wants a retail digital euro, which is expected to work as an online wallet app connected to the Eurosystem balance sheet from the ECB.
The idea is to keep central bank money usable in a digital economy, cut reliance on non-European payment rails (like Visa and Mastercard), and compete with the emergence of US stablecoins.
An Expensive (And Lengthy) Project
After a two-year preparation phase, the ECB moved to the next stage at its Oct. 29-30 meeting in Florence. The working plan will take a few years; as it points to EU legislation in 2026, a pilot in 2027… and a potential go-live in 2029.
Accordingly, Rottigni pushed a “twin” model: an ECB digital euro alongside bank-issued digital money that can iterate faster. For lenders, staggered spending reduces execution risk across core systems, wallet distribution, AML/KYC, offline features, and API integrations.
“We’re in favour of a twin approach, a central bank digital currency and commercial bank digital currencies which may develop faster, because what Europe shouldn’t do is fall behind.”
But some French and German banks object, arguing an ECB wallet used for daily payments could siphon deposits from commercial banks. For his part, Fernando Navarrete Rojas, an European Parliament deputy, questioned the necessity for a digital euro, calling it a “solution to a problem no one asked for”.
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