European Central Bank
"The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has approved initiating an assessment of the feasibility of interlinking the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform with Brazil’s fast payment system, Pix. In collaboration with the Central Bank of Brazil, the ECB will explore the potential for interlinking TIPS and Pix by assessing technical, operational, legal and business considerations. An interlinking of the two payment systems could facilitate faster and lower-cost instant payments."
Yahoo Finance
"The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a new settlement system called Pontes. The system lets eurozone banks settle trades involving tokenized assets using central bank money instead of stablecoins. Pontes is the ECB's first live service for tokenized markets, designed to do what Ripple's RLUSD was meant to do for institutions."
Glitchwire
"The European Central Bank activated Pontes on Monday, September 21, marking the start of Europe's wholesale digital currency infrastructure. The distributed ledger technology bridge connects tokenized securities platforms to the Eurosystem's TARGET real-time gross settlement system, allowing banks to settle DLT-based transactions in central bank money rather than private stablecoins or commercial bank deposits."
BitKE
"The Eurosystem has launched a call for expressions of interest inviting e-commerce and mobile commerce (m-commerce) merchants operating in the euro area to participate in its digital euro pilot. The call follows the selection of payment service providers (PSPs) that will take part in the pilot. The pilot will give selected merchants an opportunity to work with the European Central Bank (ECB) and euro area national central banks to test a simulated digital euro ecosystem and provide feedback that could help shape the digital euro’s technical specifications."
European Central Bank
"In the second half of 2024, the total number of non-cash payment transactions in the euro area increased by 8.6% to 77.6 billion compared with the second half of 2023, with the corresponding total value rising by 3.8% to €116.9 trillion. Card payments accounted for 57% of the total number of transactions, while credit transfers accounted for 21%, direct debits for 15% and e-money payments for 6%. The remaining 1% comprised cheques, money remittances, and other payment services."
European Central Bank
"As part of the preparations for the possible issuance of a digital euro, the ECB is establishing an innovation platform to collaborate with stakeholders. These may include small and large merchants, banks, other payment service providers, fintech companies, financial institutions, research institutes, technical experts and universities."
European Central Bank
"What factors could drive transactional demand for central bank digital currency (CBDC)? We analyse payment survey data to arrive at a framework for understanding the role of adoption frictions and design strategies in shaping CBDC demand."
Reuters
"The European Central Bank took a further step on Wednesday towards launching a digital version of the euro that would let people in the 20 countries that share the single currency make electronic payments securely and free of charge."
Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News
"The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering launching a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), seeking improved payment efficiency, innovation and monetary sovereignty. However, there are several concerns about whether a so-called digital euro would be a good idea. Against this backdrop, the central bank should refrain from issuing a CBDC hastily, and should wait until new favorable elements in favor of the initiative emerge, a new paper by the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit, a department within the European Parliament responsible for monitoring and analyzing economic and monetary policies, says."
Coindesk
"Central banks should veto large stablecoins if they have fears they could upend monetary policy, the chair of the European Banking Authority (EBA) has said, citing fears that the use of permissionless blockchains could prove financially unsound. EBA Chairperson José Manuel Campa will in the coming months be setting out the detailed rules to implement the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA), a landmark framework that will require stablecoin issuers to gain a license and hold suitable reserves."
Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News
"The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering launching a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), seeking improved payment efficiency, innovation and monetary sovereignty. However, there are several concerns about whether a so-called digital euro would be a good idea. Against this backdrop, the central bank should refrain from issuing a CBDC hastily, and should wait until new favorable elements in favor of the initiative emerge, a new paper by the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit, a department within the European Parliament responsible for monitoring and analyzing economic and monetary policies, says."
Reuters
The digital version of the euro currency will be free to use and available to all but the European Central Bank does not want to keep any personal data on its users, ECB board member Fabio Panetta said on Monday. The ECB is working on a digital version of its currency and is in the process of outlining the broader design, also hoping to alleviate concerns that the digital currency could disrupt the financial system and give the central bank too much data on citizens.
European Central Bank
Our investigation into a digital euro started more than a year ago. Closely involving the European Parliament in the investigation phase has been a priority for the ECB from day one. Over the course of 2022, we regularly discussed key design options in this Committee...People’s payment behaviour is changing at an unprecedented speed: over the past three years, cash payments in the euro area have dropped from 72% to 59%, with digital payments becoming increasingly popular (Chart 1).
US Gold Bureau
"The European Central Bank (ECB) proposed a series of design and distribution options for a digital Euro. The proposal lays out how the Eurosystem and banks would issue, distribute, and settle transactions using the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC). The latest proposals are in the recent progress report the ECB filed on a two-year digital Euro investigation project commenced in July of 2021. The investigative phase consists of many components including five separate tests with major banks and retailers like Amazon."
