The Italian Banking Association (ABI) announced last week that its banks are willing to collaborate in the pilot phase of the launch of a digital euro.
Concrete support for the activities of the ECB
ABI, made up of over 700 Italian banking institutions, has expressed its willingness to help accelerate the implementation of a digital currency supported by the European Central Bank (ECB) by participating in related projects and experiments.
Last year, ABI set up a working group to research digital and cryptographic assets. The group shared 10 considerations regarding a digital euro in the announcement published, starting with "Monetary stability and full compliance with the European regulatory framework must be preserved as a matter of priority".
The team prioritized the need for a digital currency framework to be fully compliant with EU regulations to win public trust and said that banks will play a key role in maintaining that trust.
“The Italian banks - it is underlined in the announcement - are available to participate in projects and experiments of a digital currency of the European Central Bank (ECB), contributing, thanks to the skills acquired in the construction of infrastructures and distributed governance, to speed up the implementation work of a European-level initiative in a first nation ”.
The group said, in fact, that Italian banks are already working with distributed ledger technology, referring in particular to the Spunta project. The project was an initiative of ABI Lab to integrate the blockchain and speed up the processing of interbank provisions.
According to the group, a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) would lead to future innovations of the traditional banking system such as P2P transactions, machine-to-machine transactions and the ability to manage exchange rate and interest rate risk thanks to the programmable capabilities of digital currencies .
“A programmable digital currency represents an innovation in the financial field capable of profoundly revolutionizing money and trade. This is a transformation capable of bringing significant potential added value, particularly in terms of the efficiency of the operational and management processes, "said the announcement.
The European trend
Italy is not the first nation to show interest in experimenting with a digital euro. Earlier this year, the French central bank published a call for proposals for CBDC experiments.
The Dutch Central Bank has also announced that the Netherlands is prepared to process a digital euro. aLast year, the head of the German central bank Jens Weidmann, in a speech, warned that a CBDC could destabilize financial systems.
Later in the year, the Association of German Banks made an announcement in favor of a programmable digital euro. The Italian Central Bank has not yet commented on the announcement of the ABI.
And what do you think of a possible digital euro? Will it be possible to use it as bitcoin? We do not believe that certain possibilities are offered and in the meantime we recommend that you protect yourself buying Bitcoin in the best way.
