The European Central Bank (ECB) has published the result of its public consultation with respect to the development and issuance of a digital Euro. According to the official announcement, the public consultation will help provide valuable input when the ECB meets in mid-2021 to decide on the next course for the Digital Euro program as confirmed by Christine Lagarde, the Bank’s president.
Per the report, the ECB said it discovered that what the general public and professionals primarily want from such a currency as the digital Euro is privacy which earned a 43% backing, followed by security at 18%, the ability to pay across the euro area, 11%, no additional costs 9% and offline usability 8%.
“A digital euro can only be successful if it meets the needs of Europeans,” says ECB Executive Board member Fabio Panetta. “We will do our best to ensure that a digital euro meets the expectations of citizens highlighted in the public consultation.”
With privacy being a major priority as gleaned from the respondents, the ECB may need to outpace the privacy standards already existing with digital currency innovations should it decide to move forward with the digital euro.
More About the European Central Bank Public Consultation Result
A total of 8,200 responses were received with private citizens representing the majority at 94%. Other respondents were professionals, including banks, payment service providers, merchants, and tech companies.
The majority of the respondents came from Italy, Germany, and France, although, being an exercise opened to the public, the European Central Bank noted the responses were not an opinion that necessarily required the views of the EU population.
“Most responses came from Germany (47%), Italy (15%), and France (11%). The answers are not necessarily representative of the views of the EU population as the consultation was open to everyone, and respondents participated on their own initiative,” the ECB said in a statement.
The ECB, just like the Reserve Bank of India will be trailing the Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBoB), and the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) amongst others who have launched their CBDC or are in the advanced stages of testing respectively.
