Lagarde | Crypto

“The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments,” according to the ECB president. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said September’s 3.8% euro area inflation rate largely reflected high energy costs, which the ECB expects to ease next year. Lagarde said while an energy shock is expected to keep euro-area inflation above the bank’s target through the first half of 2027, a measured policy response remains appropriate, according to a statement delivered at the IMF Annual Meetings on Saturday. Lagarde added that meanwhile, the ECB is devising a digital euro. “In the retail space we are preparing to complement cash with its digital equivalent — the digital euro — for day-to-day payments. The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in retail payments, ensuring that the continued co-existence of public and private solutions underpins Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments.” Read more

Lagarde warned that large stablecoins like Tether and USDC, which now dominate a $310 billion market, pose financial stability risks and could transmit stress to underlying asset markets during periods of turmoil.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said Europe should build tokenized settlement infrastructure anchored by central bank money rather than rely on private stablecoins. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said stablecoins are not an efficient way to strengthen the euro’s international role, pushing back against calls for Europe to respond to US dollar-backed stablecoins with euro-denominated tokens. Speaking Friday at the Banco de España LatAm Economic Forum in Roda de Bará, Spain, Lagarde made several comments on the role of stablecoins in the European economy. “It is no longer about whether stablecoins should exist, but whether jurisdictions can afford to be without them,” she said, arguing that the case for promoting euro stablecoins becomes less clear once their two core functions are separated. “The benefits attributed to them [stablecoins] rest on two distinct functions — a monetary function and a technological function — that are systematically conflated in the current debate,” Lagarde ...

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is reportedly weighing an early exit from the bank just as the EU enters a crucial phase for the digital euro. European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde is considering leaving before her eight-year term ends in October 2027, the Financial Times reported, citing a person “familiar with her thinking.”  Lagarde, who took office in November 2019, is said to be weighing an early exit ahead of France’s April 2027 presidential election so that outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz can agree on a successor, the FT reported Wednesday. An ECB spokesperson pushed back on the report, telling Cointelegraph: “President Lagarde is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term.” Read more