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And why not just launch a Euro stablecoin instead? On a public blockchain? Backed by European bonds and notes? Furthermore people seem to continue to forget that Central Banks in Europe as well as the ECB can't just launch a CBDC without European lawmakers giving the green light for this. With an actual law that still needs to pass. For which there might very well be no majority in European Parliament.

Interesting comments from the same bank which has JP Morgan Onyx which is one of the largest if not the largest traditional institutional financial sponsored Digital Asset operation worldwide. You would expect a more educated and balanced answer from Jamie. And criminals also use good old traditional US dollars. Many companies actually engage in tax avoidance and if you want to launder money, bitcoin is one of the worst ways to do that.

Not unimportant but often forgotten in these articles: the EC / European parliament still needs to vote on this. The ECB is NOT the decision maker here. And while Europe is of course more united than ever I am less convinced the digital Euro / CBDC will get a yes / in favor majority vote.

That the ECB wants to have the power and the influence we all understand. Is it necessary? NO. There are enough strong banks in Europe to support a Euro stablecoin, a wholesale CBDC is perhaps a good idea and in contrast with the US a lot of European payments / transactions already happen digitally. Just launching retail CBDC's to make public servants who have not been elected happy / more powerful / ... is not a good idea.

The reality has been that large financial institutions around the world have been launching stablecoins, making a digital Euro even less necessary. Surely in the case of retail CBDC's. Do hope the European Commission will make the right decision which is NOT to go forward with a retail CBDC, a digital Euro launched and controlled by the ECB.

Is it realistic to "demand" a cost maximum for such transactions if the industry would be unable to deliver that (global, cross-border) service to all countries, including more complex markets, while the costs of compliance (AML / KYC) and more broadly regulations have risen substantially? Perhaps the G20 in cooperation with the FSB needs to consider less onerous regulation where the responsibility to control and police has been put in the hands of financial institutions / FinTechs! 

With the quality of today's chatbots I would be surprised if that seriously will improve in the next 5 years or so. As banks are not particularly good at being innovative in the first place so to suddenly move to AI bots who can actually help a customer with a qestion more difficult than the account balance and whether there is a cash machine nearby. And this not only applies to banks but also airlines, customer goods and services companies, government entities. For every problem there is an AI solution?

Retail CBDC's issues by the Central Bank. In the US they will not issue and in Europe the ECB wants but European parliament fortunately will have the last word on that. Is this not a government decision? Just check around, retail CBDC's are a bad idea in many ways while they solve a problem which is not there.

Revolut has certainly come a long way. But why a $2.2 bn revenues, $0.55 bn profit should translate into a $40 bn valuation? Unclear. Profitability needs to be more constant and clearly higher. We have quarterly profits before to become losses later. We have seen mistakes in KYC / AML. We have seen the repeated failure to obtain a UK bank license. Of course you can get a license in some of the smaller more lenient countries of the world who are eager to attract some (FinTech) investments & activities to their country. Good example for the path to follow? NU Bank. Very good at lending and more generally neo banking. Operating in a limited number of countries with a very clear product / services offering. Not the smorgasboard of countries and product / services try-outs of Revolut. It's great that their investors have allowed them to invest everywhere. For $40 bn, for an IPO, for real investors who also want returns Revolut will need to focus and make clearer choices.

What is truly worrying is that with this presentation and panel, nobody raised the two most important problems with the digital euro: 1) how it creates something which can be 100% controlled by the government / ECB; 2) the ECB and traditional banks in Europe have not really stood out in terms of innovation and creating technical wonders, how will they create this digital euro? An example of control would be if Euro citizens with a digital euro account are forbidden to buy certain goods and / or services. Many political parties are very much against a digital euro.