- Technology
- News Desk
- Source: European Central Bank https://www.ecb.europa.eu//press/key/date/2026/html/ecb.sp261006~0da978f159.en.html
The European Central Bank must extend central bank money into the digital era to preserve the singleness of money and Europe's monetary sovereignty, Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on 6 October 2026 in Frankfurt am Main, warning that two-thirds of euro area card payments now rely on international schemes. Speaking at an MNI Connect webcast, Cipollone outlined a strategy covering a digital euro for retail payments and tokenised settlement for wholesale markets.
Key facts
Why does the ECB want a digital euro?
- ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone delivered the remarks on 6 October 2026 in Frankfurt am Main at an MNI Connect webcast.
- Two-thirds of card payments in the euro area depend on international card schemes, and 13 of the 21 euro area countries have no domestic card scheme.
- Cross-border transactions account for only 5% of the European payments market, according to Cipollone.
- The ECB is preparing a digital euro for retail use and developing Pontes for wholesale tokenised settlement and Appia for the wider digital finance ecosystem.
- The digital euro would be distributed by banks and regulated payment service providers, not by the ECB directly.
Cipollone argued that the technological environment is shifting rapidly, with consumers paying digitally more often, financial institutions experimenting with distributed ledger technology and new entrants challenging traditional banks. Without a digital form of cash, he said, the role of public money could keep shrinking and Europe could end up without a pan-European digital payment solution covering every type of daily transaction.
He stressed that the aim is not to displace private money or private innovation. Central bank money, he said, is the ultimate risk-free settlement asset and underpins trust in commercial bank money because the latter is convertible at par into central bank money. That convertibility guarantees that one euro has the same value as any other across the euro area. What gap would it fill?
According to Cipollone, no European digital means of payment currently works across all euro area countries and all major use cases. European private solutions tend to cover specific markets or payment situations, leaving banks and their customers heavily dependent on international card schemes and global technology companies. He noted that 13 of the 21 euro area countries have no domestic card scheme, and that where a domestic solution exists it cannot be used elsewhere without co-badging with international schemes.
The ECB executive said this is not only a question of sovereignty, resilience and freedom of choice but also of competitiveness, since European payment service providers have been unable to compete with international solutions on a European scale. The cost of building a Europe-wide acceptance network individually has deterred providers, he added. How would the digital euro work?
Cipollone welcomed the recent announcement of an interoperability platform allowing private payment solutions to share customers, calling it a step in the right direction. But he said much remains to be done: cross-border transactions account for just 5% of the market, and interoperability neither expands acceptance domestically nor broadens the use cases covered.
The digital euro would provide a common acceptance layer across the euro area, available online and offline and usable for person-to-person payments, e-commerce and payments in physical shops. Its legal tender status would give it pan-European reach. The ECB would not provide customer-facing services; banks and other regulated payment service providers would distribute the digital euro, manage customer relationships and develop complementary services.
"Our objective is not to take over the role of banks," Cipollone said. "On the contrary, the digital euro would equip banks with the infrastructure they need to compete in the digital age and help them expand the reach and use cases of their own solutions." What about wholesale markets?
On wholesale markets, Cipollone said the ECB aims to ensure that central bank money can be used to settle tokenised transactions through Pontes, while working with the market through Appia to shape the wider digital finance ecosystem. He warned that if tokenised finance develops on closed, incompatible platforms without a safe settlement asset, fragmentation could increase and the singleness of money could be weakened.
He framed the retail and wholesale initiatives as part of one comprehensive strategy to keep central bank money at the heart of retail and wholesale finance, while giving European market participants the infrastructure to innovate, grow and remain competitive internationally. Excessive dependence on infrastructures, technologies or solutions controlled elsewhere, he said, diminishes Europe's resilience and monetary sovereignty. What happens next?
The ECB is continuing preparatory work on the digital euro, with the legislative framework still under discussion among European policymakers. Cipollone's remarks set out the central bank's case for extending public money into digital payments and settlement as tokenisation spreads, and for ensuring that any such shift preserves the two-tier monetary system in which public and private money coexist.
Source: European Central Bank
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