Digital Euro Will Offer 'Maximum Level of Privacy,' ECB Board Member Says
The ECB says a digital euro would offer the highest privacy level current technology allows. For offline use, payments would go directly between individuals, with details visible only to payer and payee. For online use, the Eurosystem would not identify senders or receivers; only the banks handling transactions would know, mainly for anti-money-laundering rules. Commercial banks distributing the currency would still see payments and keep existing reporting obligations. The ECB’s stance comes as EU lawmakers advance digital euro legislation, with negotiations aiming for a deal by end-2026 and a pilot planned for 2027, with possible first issuance in 2029. The U.S. has taken the opposite approach, banning a Federal Reserve CBDC until 2030 unless Congress authorizes it. Cipollone has also warned that stablecoins could pull deposits and payment data away from European banks.
