ECB says Digital Euro necessary payments during major disruptions

The European Central Bank (ECB) has emphasized the need for a digital euro to ensure availability during major ￰1￱ plan involves building a distributed transaction infrastructure isolated from faults across multiple ￰2￱ ECB revealed that the digital euro needs to guarantee continuous payment access across the euro area even during major disruptions such as banking crises, cyberattacks, and power ￰3￱ Cipollone, the ECB’s board member, presented the proposal to the European Parliament, acknowledging that the digital euro would complement cash, therefore ensuring a secure, universally accepted digital payment method is ￰4￱ emphasizes digital euro position According to Piero Cipollone, digital payments have become increasingly common daily but are vulnerable to geopolitical risks, operational failures, and ￰5￱ noted incidents such as the sabotaged undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland and power outages in Spain and Portugal, showing the need for resilient systems.

He, however, insisted that the digital euro would provide an extra layer of security and stability in such ￰6￱ cash, the digital euro will allow everyone to pay throughout the euro area at all times and safeguard inclusion for all ￰7￱ Executive Board member Piero Cipollone’s full speech at the @Europarl_EN ￰0￱ ￰8￱ — European Central Bank (@ecb) September 4, 2025 In a proposal submitted to the European Parliament, the ECB’s plan for the digital euro includes a distributed transaction infrastructure with servers in at least three isolated regions to ensure uninterrupted service ￰9￱ digital euro app will be backed by the ECB and allow users to switch through several payment providers, guaranteeing continuous access to funds in the event of cyberattacks or disruptions to individual ￰10￱ app will also be incorporated with an offline feature that allows for payments even when internet connectivity is ￰11￱ mentioned that financial inclusion is another key component that the euro would ensure access for digitally excluded citizens with limited financial literacy or who face physical ￰12￱ ECB has also conducted user research, including user groups with vulnerable and digitally excluded consumers, to design adaptive interfaces such as voice commands, large font displays, and simplified ￰13￱ ECB proposal highlighted that national entities such as post offices, libraries, and local authorities may provide dedicated customer support to assist citizens in accessing digital ￰14￱ the provisions highlighted in the ECB proposal, some lawmakers have expressed concerns, citing that risk-free digital accounts could drain deposits from commercial ￰15￱ raised questions regarding the individual accounts with caps on them and whether those caps would be lifted during a ￰16￱ responded that caps would be determined via a thorough ￰17￱ added that savvy individuals may move funds using U.

S.-backed stablecoins in ￰18￱ raise concerns over privacy and competition over the digital euro Some lawmakers also highlighted the privacy and potential displacement of private sector payment solutions ￰19￱ said that open standards for the digital euro could allow private entities to develop sophisticated ￰20￱ added that banks distributing the digital euro would also be compensated for their ￰21￱ ECB reiterated that digital currency is intended to strengthen the resilience of the European payment system and is not intended to replace ￰22￱ ECB officials highlighted recent international developments, such as the passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.

S., that showed the need for a robust European digital ￰23￱ reported that major ￰24￱ groups, including the Pank Policy Institute (BPI) and American Bankers Association, urged Congress to tighten the GENIUS Act to prevent stablecoin issuers from offering interest-like ￰25￱ warned that without stricter rules, close to $6.6 trillion may be shifted from traditional deposits to stablecoins, potentially reducing the lending market and raising interest ￰26￱ GENIUS Act currently prevents issuers from paying interest, but banks argue the law does not fully cover crypto exchanges, which may create a loophole for proxy yield ￰27￱ cited stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, which continue to provide interest rewards through exchanges, a practice they say unfairly competes against deposits and money market ￰28￱ Difference Wire : the secret tool crypto projects use to get guaranteed media coverage