Piero Cipollone: Interview with Milano Finanza
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Piero Cipollone, Member of the ECB Executive Board, presents the digital euro as a European alternative to non-European card schemes, which handle two-thirds of online payments. He says the pilot will start in 2027 and that, if the regulation is adopted this year, issuance could come in 2029.
Key points
- There will be a holding limit but no payment limit; any excess will be drawn from the linked current account
- It will work offline, with cash-like privacy
- Small merchants can pay fees up to four times those of large ones; the digital euro will have legally capped costs
- 36 operators, seven of them Italian, are already involved in the preparations
Who is affected
Banks, payment providers, merchants and consumers
Deadlines
Pilot in 2027; possible issuance in 2029 if the regulation is adopted in 2026
Plain-language version
Piero Cipollone of the ECB (the euro area's central bank) pitches the digital euro, an electronic version of cash, as Europe's alternative to non-European card schemes, which handle two-thirds of online payments. It would work offline with cash-like privacy, with a cap on how much you can hold but not on how much you spend. The pilot starts in 2027 and it could launch in 2029.
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