The Financial Times reports that privacy concerns will emerge as a major issue going forward as European officials ponder the future of a digitized Euro currency.
“Any future European digital currency should ensure users’ payments cannot be tracked, according to respondents to a European Central Bank survey who highlighted the importance of privacy in any future monetary innovation,” they write.
The newspaper quotes Fabio Panetta, an ECB executive board member as saying the currency could be ready to launch by 2026 or 2027.
“Electronic payments are becoming increasingly popular, so a digital euro would ensure that sovereign money — a public good that central banks have been offering to citizens for centuries — remains available in the digital era,” he said.
And while privacy was the priority of most respondents who took part in a recent survey, Panetta added EU officials still “understand the trade-offs that are necessarily imposed by the introduction of a digital euro, in particular the need to respect laws preventing illicit activities such as money laundering.”
The ECB is still doing testing on the proposed currency and they say digital euro is “showing promising results” so far.
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