The ECB’s Piero Cipollone said the central bank wants key technical standards for a possible digital euro locked in by this summer so banks and merchants can prepare for the rollout. European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said on Tuesday that the ECB expects by this summer to announce the European standards it will use for a potential digital euro, a step aimed at helping payment providers and merchants prepare their systems ahead of any issuance decision. Cipollone told European Union lawmakers that, once those standards are announced, the ECB will work with market participants so they can begin embedding them into payment terminals and other solutions as soon as possible. Cipollone said finalizing the rulebook would let new terminals and payment apps ship with the necessary rails already embedded, giving European companies a head start once EU legislation is in place, which the ECB expects to happen in 2026. Read more
ECB’s Piero Cipollone said stablecoin adoption could erode bank deposits, but the digital euro will keep banks at the center of payments. European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said wider stablecoin adoption could erode commercial banks’ retail deposit base. He made the remarks Friday in a speech to Italy’s Federation of Cooperative Credit Banks in Rome, where he argued that digital payments are reshaping banking and increasing Europe’s reliance on non-European payment infrastructure. Cipollone said banks are already losing payment fees and transaction data to mobile payment providers. He added that the digital euro would help preserve banks’ role in the payments system. Read more