The European Central Bank (ECB) has formed an advisory group on the potential development and rollout of CBDC.
According to the press release, it includes 30 specialists from BBVA, Deutsche Bank AG, Societe Generale, European Payments Council, Stripe, IKEA and other organisations.
ECB Executive Board member Fabio Panetta expressed satisfaction that “many highly qualified experts from the private sector” are ready to contribute to the digital euro project.
“Their experience will help integrate the perspectives of potential users and distributors at the research stage,” he noted.
The group’s participants will advise officials on CBDC development and opportunities for the payments ecosystem. The work will also involve a member of the European Commission and representatives of euro-area central banks.
The research phase will last 24 months. The regulator has not yet decided whether to issue a digital euro.
The initiative originated in November 2019. In October 2020 the ECB published a comprehensive report on the topic.
In April 2021, the regulator’s president Christine Lagarde stated that the EU could issue its own CBDC within four years, if policymakers approve the project.
Later Panetta emphasised that the central bank digital currency would provide better privacy protections than private stablecoins.
In July, the ECB Governing Council decided to begin the phase of national digital currency research.
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