This group features 30 high-ranking financial professionals from the organizations like CRIF, BBVA, Stripe, and many others. The European Central Bank (ECB) has confirmed the formation of a market advisory group to explore the circulation and infrastructural potential of the digital euro from the perspective of industry spearheads.
The group will also work to uncover the digital euros optimal functionality within the pan-European currency’s wide payments ecosystems. It comprises several well-established experts coming from the financial and banking industry; including Antonio Macías Vecino, head of payments discipline at BBVA; Aleksander Kurtevski, managing director of Bankart; and Axel Schaefer, payment regulation and innovation specialist at Ingka Group (Ikea).
It is now expected that the initial consultation meetings will start in November 2021 and will operate monthly. These 30 members will work in advisory roles and then report their findings for consideration in retail payments discussions within the Euro Retail Payments Board.
Buy Bitcoin NowECB Plans Preliminary Research
In mid-July 2021, the Governing Council of the ECB unveiled plans to start a 2-year preliminary research initiative into the feasibility of the digital euro project, assessing different parameters, including infrastructure distribution, design, and creation, with a guaranteed intention to “complement cash, not replace it.”
Fabio Panetta, an ECB board member, insisted on his high expectations for the project’s success:
“I am pleased that many high-quality experts from the private sector are willing to contribute to the digital euro project. Their expertise will facilitate the integration of prospective users’ and distributors’ views on a digital euro during the investigation phase.”
In the past year, the ECB has managed to make some progressive steps while pursuing a digital euro. The initiative shows the bank’s desire to boost growth within the digital asset space.
Nonetheless, the institution has also elaborated, somehow paradoxically, the worries surrounding the rapid advancement of the space; with the vice president alleging that cryptocurrency has ‘very weak fundamentals’ during a May 2021 interview.
During an interview with the World Economic Forum in early September, President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde; reviewed the vague categorization of different dollar-pegged digital assets within the cryptocurrency industry. She concluded that stablecoins are ‘pretending to be a coin’ although in truth they are “completely associated with an actual currency.”
Insisting on this assessment, she said that assets of this nature need to be “checked, supervised, regulated” to guarantee liquidity, transparency, and operation that supports the safety of the consumer.
