The recent bank collapses and bailouts highlight the fragility of the banking system and our bank deposits. The digital euro is an opportunity to reconfigure our monetary system to serve the interests of people and society, by making money safer and more inclusive. However, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) current proposal for a digital euro falls short of this potential. The current plan relies heavily on private financial intermediaries and envisions putting important limitations on the use of digital euros, thereby impacting its capacity to be a universally accessible public good and risking undermining the uptake of the digital euro. By heeding to the bank lobby and baking their interests into the design of the digital euro, the ECB is missing an opportunity to develop an appealing and public digital alternative to private bank deposits. The digital euro must be developed with the aim of benefiting people and society over private interests, and these considerations should guide its design. In the short term, the digital euro should: 1. Be universally accessible. People should be able to access digital euros through a diverse range of intermediaries, which include non-profit and public entities. Implementing a tiered identification system for account-based digital euros, and introducing a value-based option, would ensure the availability of digital euros to the most vulnerable segments of society. 2. Be free of cost for users. Any future legislative framework on the digital euro should include a list of basic services that should be provided for free to users, such as opening and managing an account and the provision of a payment instrument (e.g. a card). 3. Offer a high level of privacy and data protection. Cash, which is fully anonymous, should be used as the baseline when developing the digital euro. A value-based option should be introduced alongside an account-based one, and it should be designed to be fully anonymous. For the account-based option, a ‘privacy threshold’ can ensure that users’ data for small transactions is protected. 4. Have a clear European Central Bank branding. Clear branding will help to differentiate public digital euros from private bank deposits. 5. Bring resilience to the payment system. By providing an offline value-based option, and by ensuring that the digital euro’s legal and technical core infrastructure is public and works independently of any private system, we can offer an alternative to existing payment rails and increase resiliency in case of outages. The digital euro is also an opportunity to improve financial stability by transforming the banking system, and helping central banks to more effectively carry out their monetary policy. The design of the digital euro should be flexible enough to allow for the achievement of these longterm goals, and more research should be conducted to explore how different features could help achieve them. For instance, a digital euro without any holding limit could reduce moral hazard in the banking sector, and the adjustment of interest rates on digital euro deposits and direct monetary transfers could improve the transmission of monetary policy.
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In conclusion, the debate on the digital euro is not so much a technocratic and legislative affair as a defining political moment in the history of Europe’s money and payments system. It is an opportunity to redefine the future of money, payments and financial intermediation in a way that is in line with the principles of inclusiveness, fair markets and innovation. Europeans deserve a digital euro that transcends the narrow interests of the banking lobby and embodies the promise of a fairer and more competitive monetary and financial landscape.
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Lawmakers as representatives of the people should resist the anti-competitive proposals of the banking sector and embrace a vision of the digital euro that serves the collective interests of Europeans, Dr Martijn van der Linden and Vicky Van Eyck write. The influence of the banking lobby on policymakers risks undermining the digital euro's potential. Lawmakers as representatives of the people should resist the anticompetitive proposals of the banking sector and embrace a vision of the digital euro that serves the collective interests of Europeans. This means that the digital euro must be attractive, accessible and beneficial to all. The deliberation process must be free from the disproportionate influence of an industry that has much to lose from a level playing field for payment services and financial intermediation.
MULTIFILE
Niet iedereen wenst nog te praten over de economische meerwaarde van de euro. De opmerkingen hierover van Coen Teulings in een veelbsproken interview in de Telegraaf waren dan ook zeer welkom.
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Teveel idealen en te weinig analyse. Het is wel vaker een recept voor ellende. Zo ook met de euro.
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De vier grote hogescholen in de Randstad willen 1000 euro extra voor elke student van laag opgeleide ouders. Bestuursvoorzitter Pim Breebaart van de Haag-se Hogeschool verwacht dat dit de schatkist bijna 20 miljoen euro zal kosten.
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De opmars van de euro ten opzichte van de dollar komt door het ruime beleid vand e FED.
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Door Cypriotische spaartegoeden te bevriezen is de euro in ieder geval tijdelijk geen eenheidsmunt meer.
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Ondanks scherpe dalingen staat de euro ten opzichte van de dollar nog steeds hoger dan we in het guldentijdperk gewend waren.
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