Privacy ranked the most important feature for future digital euro

The ECB received a record of over 8000 responses to its consultation on the creation of a digital euro, with 43% of users citing privacy as the most valuable feature. This was followed by security (18%), the ability to pay across the euro area (11%), no additional costs (9%) and offline usability (8%).

More than two-thirds of respondents acknowledge the importance of intermediaries providing innovative services that allow access to a digital euro and indicate that it should be integrated into existing banking and payment systems. They would like additional services provided on top of basic digital euro payments.

Around a quarter of those polled take the view that a digital euro should make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. They want the digital euro to be usable outside the euro area, though with limits.

According to a quarter of respondents, end-user solutions comprising payment cards or a secure element in smartphones would be preferred to facilitate cash-like features. Almost half mention a need for holding limits, tiered remuneration, or a combination of the two, to manage the amount of digital euro in circulation.

“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.”

Plans to introduce a digital euro are still at a conceptual stage, with an announcement expected in June as to how best to proceed. But the project has been met with a backlash in Germany, spearheaded by the Deutsche Bundesbank, which has argued that successful tests of a six-year research effort to implement a distributed ledger for electronic securities settlement should negate the need for a central bank digital currency.

Popular German magazine Focus also wrote that a digital euro would be “catastrophic” for savers.