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The European Central Bank (ECB) reported that Euro area consumers are gradually shifting towards cards for in-person retail payments, although cash remained the most used instrument at the end of 2019. In 2019, euro area adult consumers used cash for 73% of their point-of-sale and person-to-person retail transactions (48% in value terms). In a previous ECB study conducted in 2016, the figure was 79% of these transactions (54% in value terms). The ECB carried out an ad hoc survey in July 2020 that found that 40% of respondents had used cash less often since the start of the pandemic.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a survey targeting potential participants in its trials and experiments for central bank money settlement of wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms. The plan is to test three settlement solutions, including two that link to existing euro payment systems (from the central banks of Germany and Italy) and one wholesale CBDC developed by the Banque de France. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/intro/news/ecb.dedocs231013_annex.en.pdf

The European Central Bank (ECB) digital euro project will move to the "preparation" phase on November 1, 2023, with the completion of the "investigation" phase launched in October 2021. Based on the findings from this phase, a digital euro would be widely accessible, free for basic use and available online and offline. It would offer the highest level of privacy and allow users to settle payments instantly in central bank money. It could be used from person to person, at the point of sale, in e-commerce and in government transactions. The preparation phase will initially last two years, and involve finalizing the digital euro rulebook and selecting providers that could develop a digital euro platform and infrastructure. It will also include testing and experimentation. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/digital_euro/investigation/profuse/shared/files/dedocs/ecb.dedocs231018.en.pdf

The European Central Bank (ECB) published the second progress report on the investigation phase of a digital euro. It outlines the developments made since the first progress report, which was published in September 2022. The report details a second set of design and distribution options that were recently endorsed by the Governing Council and describes the roles of the Eurosystem and supervised intermediaries in the digital euro ecosystem. In 2023 the ECB will further assess a number of design and distribution options and in the second half of the year present the overall design of a digital euro to the Governing Council.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is opposed to Apple's proposed changes to the iPhone's near-field communication (NFC) at the core of Apple Pay. The ECB argues that by not providing third parties with full access to the secure element (SE) of its NFC technology, Apple Pay maintains an unfair advantage against third-party payment apps on iPhones. Because of these limitations, contactless payments made through third-party apps on iPhone would be less user-friendly and ultimately be slower than Apple's offering. Also, iPhones would be incompatible with the digital euro, because the current enabling legislation requires the ability to do peer-to-peer (P2P) and offline payments, the latter which requires access to the SE.

The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) are jointly reviewing at the technical level a broad range of policy, legal and technical questions emerging from a possible introduction of a digital euro. Following the conclusion of the public consultation on January 12, 2021 and a period of preparatory work, the ECB will consider whether to start a digital euro project towards mid-2021. Such a project would answer key design and technical questions and provide the ECB with the necessary tools to stand ready to issue a digital euro if such a decision is taken.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will investigate whether and how TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) could support payment transactions across different currencies. The investigation will begin as of October 2020 in collaboration with Sveriges Riksbank.. TIPS is a service that settles payments in central bank money in real time and around the clock. It currently supports the settlement of instant payments in euro, but also has the functional capability to support other currencies. TIPS will start to settle instant payments in Swedish kronor as of May 2022. The ECB and Sveriges Riksbank will explore possible ways of enabling the TIPS platform to process cross-currency instant payments between euro and Swedish kronor.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a call for expression of interest for payment service providers, banks and technology companies to join an exercise to develop prototype user interfaces for a digital euro. The ECB specifies 28 separate possible use cases, covering all aspects of the design process, from QR codes to user authentication, electronic ID (EID) and know-your-customer (KYC), among others.

The European Central Bank (ECB) published a paper that analyzed the impact of the introduction of a digital euro on the ECB and commercial bank balance sheets, based on a theoretical model applied to Q3 2021 balance sheet data from over 2,000 euro area banks. It found that the impact depends on i) the number and speed of deposit withdrawals, ii) the liquidity available within the banking system at the time of the digital euro introduction, iii) the liquidity risk preferences of the markets and supervisors, iv) the bank's business model, and v) the functioning of the interbank market. The paper found that a €3,000 digital euro holding limit per person, would have been successful in containing the impact on bank liquidity risks and funding structures and on the Eurosystem balance sheet, even in extremely pessimistic scenarios.

The European Central Bank (ECB) provided a status report on its central bank digital currency (CBDC) work. It confirmed that a digital euro would incorporate individual user holding limits to slow the possible conversion of bank deposits into digital euro  (disintermediation risk). A digital euro would also bear interest calibrated to make digital holdings above a certain threshold unattractive compared to other highly liquid low-risk assets.  Offline payments will only be allowed for low value, low risk, close proximity transactions. [Read the report here] In addition, ECB board member Fabio Panetta set out a plan for a digital euro scheme involving a set of rules, practices and standards with plans to start working on a rulebook.

A leaked draft of the proposed Digital Euro Bill, to be proposed by the European Commission on June 28, 2023 will ban remuneration, surcharges and programmability, and make offline payments available from the outset. The regulation aims to ensure a level of privacy equal to taking cash from an ATM during offline, face-to-face interactions, and neither the European Central Bank (ECB) nor the payment service providers will have access to personal transaction data. The draft law also allows the ECB to set holding limits to limit disintermediation risk. Much of this is rather consistent with a slide deck published by the ECB on June 15.

[January 2020] "In terms of the road ahead, the ECB will continue to assess the costs and benefits of issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that would ensure that the general public remains able to use central bank money even if the use of physical cash eventually declines. However, the prospect of central bank initiatives should neither discourage nor crowd out private market-led solutions for fast and efficient retail payments in the euro area. We are looking closely into the feasibility and merits of a CBDC, also because it could have major implications for the financial sector and for the transmission of monetary policy. At the end of 2019 we created an expert task force at the ECB that will work closely with the national central banks to study the feasibility of a euro area CBDC in various forms, covering all the practical aspects, including how to minimise possible unintended side-effects."

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a report summarising the progress made by the digital euro scheme's Rulebook Development Group (RDG). Since the last update in June 2023, the RDG has drafted the first chapters of the digital euro rulebook in line with the legislative proposal and the digital euro design decisions approved by the Governing Council of the ECB. This first draft of the rulebook is an intermediate version which covers: (i) the functional and operational models, including the end-to-end flows describing the functioning of all use cases and services relating to a digital euro; (ii) the technical scheme requirements depicting a high-level architecture and standards which should potentially be considered in a digital euro landscape; and (iii) the adherence model setting out the rights and obligations of scheme members in accordance with the draft legislation.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued five calls for applications to establish framework agreements with potential providers of digital euro components and related services. At this stage the ECB is not making a commitment to launch any of the development work listed in the calls for applications. The purpose of the selection process is to establish framework agreements with the most suitable external providers to ensure that the Eurosystem is prepared to start developing a digital euro in the future if warranted.

As part of the European Central Bank's (ECB) explorations, Boerse Stuttgart and six German banks tested the settlement of exchange transactions with blockchain-based securities against central bank money for the first time. The settlement solution was linked to the Deutsche Bundesbank's trigger solution and thus to the traditional euro payment system. The tests showed that the settlement processes can be mapped automatically, step by step and directly between the trading participants - efficiently, securely and without counterparty risk. The settlement time was reduced from two days to just a few minutes. https://group.boerse-stuttgart.com/media/li2dfavi/241001-mr-ecb-blockchain-tests.pdf

In 2024, the ECB invited market participants to test how new technologies like distributed-ledger technologies (DLT) would work for central bank money settlement. The so-called ECB trials and experiments are aimed at exploring the potential of digital payments targeting a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). Together with leading institutions, infrastructures and fintech businesses, Deutsche Börse Group contributes to this transformative endeavor with its Clearstream and Eurex Clearing businesses. The Deutsche Börse maintains a list of all such use-case experiments here.

Crypto-Assets: Implications for financial stability, monetary policy, and payments and market infrastructures This ECB paper summarises the outcomes of the analysis of the ECB Crypto-Assets Task Force. It concludes, in the current market, crypto-assets' risks or potential implications are limited and/or manageable on the basis of the existing regulatory and oversight frameworks.

The ECB says the "central banking community" will refine its monitoring of crypto transactions, both on- and off-chain. In an Aug. 7 report the ECB argues that "closing the data gaps associated with crypto-assets" continues to pose a significant challenge for regulators and financial institutions.

ECB board member Benoit Coeure said Libra has revived efforts to widen the uptake of the ECB-backed TIPs fast cash project, and that the ECB needs to step up its thinking on a central bank digital currency.

European Central Bank (ECB) board member Fabio Panetta warned that the charges levied by banks for instant payments are proving a barrier to uptake. "While the cost for service providers of using TIPS is 0.20 eurocent per instant payment transaction, instant payments are sometimes offered to consumers for €1 per transaction. This must change. For instant payments to become the new normal, they must be cheap and easy to use. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2021/html/ecb.sp210519~6a4523d953.en.html