The German Banking Industry Committee’s key requirements of the digital euro

The introduction of a digital euro will make Europe more independent, more competitive and more resilient. The German Banking Industry Committee supports these aims. We are convinced that, under certain conditions, a digital euro will strengthen the sovereignty and competitiveness of Europe in the payments market. This presupposes, in particular, that the digital euro offers real market value not only for users and merchants but also for payment service providers, and that it is widely accepted on the market.

This will require close cooperation between the ECB and the private sector in both the design and implementation of the digital euro, in order to bundle their respective competences and achieve these aims.  Strengthening European competitiveness is a matter of maintaining existing and proven European payments offers as well as promoting existing and new procedures such as SEPA, Bizum and EPI/wero, which will help pave the way for a digital euro. This would help avoid high implementation costs and allow the private sector to strengthen their innovation projects by the time the digital euro is launched on the market.

A digital euro must be designed in such a way that the costs and complexity are minimised based on market economy principles. Existing infrastructures proven to work in practice should be used to guarantee planning security for investment and innovations by European payment service providers. The intended strengthening of European sovereignty in the payments market also means creating a balance between European and non-European providers.

We will not, however, be able to achieve these goals based on the current design of the project and of the ‘digital euro’ product.  We believe there is a need for improvement: In particular, the digital euro must be designed specifically and exclusively for digital payments, and it must offer real added value to all stakeholders – consumers, merchants, businesses and banks. Only then can we expect it to be accepted widely across the market. In addition, it is vital that unintended consequences are avoided and that we create a level playing field of competitive conditions and planning security for offerings in the European payments market. Ultimately, a legally secure framework is the prerequisite for trust and acceptance of a digital euro.

The German Banking Industry Committee will support this process constructively and will contribute its extensive expertise in order to make the digital euro as successful as its physical counterpart, euro cash.