European Central Bank ready for next phase of digital euro

By Gokhan Ergocun

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AA) - The European Central Bank (ECB) announced Wednesday that its governing council will start a digital euro preparation phase following the conclusion of a two-year investigation on designing and distributing.

"(The) Preparation phase will lay foundations for a potential digital euro, with work to include finalising rulebook and selecting providers to develop platform and infrastructure," according to a statement.

The new phase aims to pave the way for a potential future decision on issuing a digital euro, it noted.

The investigation phase began in October 2021, it said. "Based on the findings from this phase, detailed in a report published today, the ECB has designed a digital euro that would be widely accessible to citizens and businesses through distribution by supervised intermediaries, such as banks."

It underlined that the preparation phase is not a decision to issue a digital currency, but only a decision to consider by the governing council once the EU's legislative process has been completed.

"The ECB will take into account any adjustments to the design of the digital euro that may become necessary as a result of the legislative deliberations," it added.