Not too long ago (in October 2020) the European Central Bank (ECB) published a report exploring the risks and opportunities that would come from the introduction of a digital euro. Together with the publication of the report, the ECB also launched its public consultation phase on the digital euro, allowing citizens, firms and industry associations to submit responses to an online questionnaire. This consultation phase ended in early January 2021 with a record level of public feedback (over 8,000 responses).
According to the ECB, the initial analysis of raw data shows that privacy of payments is ranked highest amongst the requested features of a potential digital euro (41 % of responses), followed by security (17 %), and pan-European reach (10 %). A detailed analysis of the public consultation is expected to be published in early spring and shall serve as valuable input for the ECB's decision whether to launch the digital euro project later this year or not.
According to the ECB's Fabio Panetta (Chair of the task force on a digital euro), the high number of responses to the questionnaire shows that there is great interest from Europe's citizens and firms in shaping the vision of a digital euro. It remains to be seen how this will further unfold. We will keep you updated, meanwhile you can also view the report on the digital euro if you haven't had a chance yet.
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