European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta says that the development of a digital euro might begin by the end of next year, according to a Reuters report. If the work is underway by then, Panetta expects it to take about three years to complete, meaning it’d be ready for people to use by the start of 2027. This plan puts the European Union years behind China which tested its digital yuan in 2020.
On the matter, Panetta said:
“Finally, at the end of 2023 we could decide to start a realisation phase to develop and test the appropriate technical solutions and business arrangements necessary to provide a digital euro. This phase could take three years.”
In a speech from April, published on the ECB website, Panetta is very sceptical about cryptos in their form today. He says the market is a bubble with parallels to the sub-prime mortgage market that caused the crisis in 2007. To address the issue he called for more regulation. He also said central banks must use cutting edge tech to operate fast retail payment systems and prepare for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Even though the ECB is behind the People’s Bank of China with its CBDC, Panetta claimed in the speech that the bank was at the fore in digital currency.