Digital €: does the ECB want its cake and eat it too?

Written by John Orchard, CEO of OMFIF

The European Central Bank (ECB) describes a digital € as: “A digital euro would be a digital form of cash, issued by the central bank and available to everyone in the euro area…. An electronic means of payment available free of charge to everyone. Like cash today, you could use it anywhere in the euro area, and it would be secure and private. In our increasingly digitalised society, a digital euro would be the next step forward for our single currency”, claiming, “by making public money available for digital payments, a digital euro would make all our lives easier. We would be able to use it whenever and wherever we need to, for free. This would help strengthen the monetary sovereignty of the euro area and foster competition in the European payments sector.” It would appear the decline of cash in Europe continues with only 20% of the cash available now used for payments, down from 35% fifteen years. As we increasingly find ourselves in a more digitised environment, the spectre of a di…