Fabio Panetta: Designing a digital euro for the retail payments landscape of tomorrow

Speech by Mr Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committee of the European Parliament, Brussels, 18 November 2021.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Madam Chair, honourable members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs,

Thank you for inviting me to report on the investigation phase of the digital euro project, which we started in October. I am happy to finally meet at least some of you in person, once again. Our interactions started a year ago when we published the Eurosystem report on a digital euro. I am pleased that these exchanges of views continue, and I am committed to having regular topical hearings with you during the investigation phase of the project.

In my remarks today I will focus on why we would issue a digital euro. I will then outline how we will structure our work in the investigation phase to ensure that we design a digital means of payment that is attractive to consumers.