• INTERVIEW

Interview with Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, conducted by Roberto Sommella on 21 October 2026

Mr Cipollone, you have just attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Italian Banking Association. Was the digital euro one of the topics discussed?

We mainly talked about tokenisation. On the subject of the digital euro, I provided an update on the status of the debates on the legislation in Brussels and on the progress of our internal preparations within the Eurosystem.

Since you joined the ECB, payments have become one of the main focus areas of your work. Why are they so important for Europe’s future?

Because payments constitute a strategic infrastructure for Europe and, as a central bank, ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems falls within our mandate. Whenever we buy something online or pay for a coffee, we think about the price of what we’re buying. But we hardly ever think about how the payment is made. Yet if the payment system stops working, the economy stops working.

Will the introduction of the digital euro help with this?

Yes. Today we can use money issued by the central bank only in the form of cash. But a growing share of our economic life takes place online, where banknotes can’t be used. The digital euro fills this gap. It gives people the freedom to make payments using an instrument that is equivalent to cash in terms of its nature and characteristics, such as privacy and covering all payment needs, but which also works where cash can’t be used.

Ever more purchases are being made online. In Italy, for example, according to the latest available data, online payments grew from 6% of the total in 2019 to 24% in 2024. And I expect they’ve grown even more since then.

These online purchases are normally made via card payments and two thirds of these payments are made using non-European card schemes. For most euro area countries, this dependence on non-European operators is not limited to online payments but also extends to physical shops, because they don’t even have anything like Italy’s Bancomat that would enable payments to be made in local shops.

In short, for an essential service like payments, we are heavily dependent on an infrastructure over which we have no direct control.

So can the digital euro be described as a European digital sovereignty project?

The Eurosystem focuses on matters that are closely related to its mandate. And, as I said at the start, the smooth functioning of payment systems is one of our responsibilities. If we are critically dependent on third parties, it’s not easy to ensure this smooth functioning. In recent years Europe has learned that, for some essential services, we cannot rely only on third parties. We saw this with energy and we’re seeing it today with defence. And the same is true for payments.

The digital euro will give Europe an alternative of its own, bringing to the digital world what cash has always ensured: a secure form of public money that protects privacy and is accepted throughout the euro area.

Sovereignty doesn’t mean shutting third parties out. It means having the power to choose and knowing that, for an essential service like payments, Europe can also rely on its own strength.

Does this dependency bring any specific consequences for merchants too?

Yes, particularly for small merchants. Today the fees that a small shop pays can be up to four times higher than those paid by large operators. The digital euro will introduce a European alternative that will increase competition and, thanks to the caps on costs laid down by law, will help to reduce fees for those with less bargaining power.

From this perspective, it seems that there’s no time to waste.

Absolutely. In 2027 we will already launch a pilot based on real transactions carried out by the staff of the ECB and the other national central banks. It will serve to test the technology in real conditions and to build the digital euro hand-in-hand with the market.

36 market operators, of which seven are Italian, are already collaborating in the preparatory works. And we are now calling for e-commerce and mobile commerce operators to take part.

If the regulation is approved this year, the digital euro could be rolled out as early as 2029. When will the final decision be taken?

The decision can only be taken once the legislative negotiations that are under way in Brussels have been concluded. We hope that the regulation will be adopted by the end of the year, enabling the ECB’s Governing Council to issue a formal decision on issuance.

The adoption of the regulation will make it possible to complete the rulebook with the technical rules necessary for the market to prepare ahead of time. The ECB can get the infrastructure ready, but banks, payment system operators and merchants will also need time to adapt their systems and processes.

Will there be a limit on holdings of digital euro?

Yes, but there won’t be limits on payments. The limit applies to how much digital euro I can hold in a digital wallet, not how much I can spend. If a payment exceeds the available balance – when buying a car, for example – it will be possible to take the remainder automatically from the linked current account.

The limit on the amount of digital euro that can be held will safeguard financial stability, particularly in crisis situations. Our analyses show that with a properly calibrated limit, there will be no negative effects on the banking system.

Is it true that it will also work offline?

Yes. It will be possible to make payments in shops during a power cut or in remote and isolated areas where there’s no internet connection or where the connection is weak and sporadic. It will suffice to bring two devices together, as when using a contactless card today. The payment will be made directly between the payor and payee, without going via the internet. It means merchants can keep receiving payments even when other digital payment methods are not available.

This will make the digital euro more resilient and will also better protect privacy. With offline payments, details of the transaction remain exclusively between the payor and the payee, very much like cash payments today.

How exactly will we be able to use the digital euro? Will a new app be available?

There will be two options. Banks will be able to integrate the digital euro into the apps their clients already use, while the Eurosystem will offer an easy-to-use, standardised, reliable app with the basic functions.

Even if you use the latter option, your relationship will nevertheless still be with your own bank; the ECB will not open accounts for people.

But what will this European app be used for?

Just as banknotes are the same throughout the euro area, the digital euro app will also offer a common point of access. The digital euro must be accessible to everyone, regardless of their country, their age or their digital skills. We have incorporated accessibility from the design stage onwards, and have been working with organisations representing those with disabilities.

We are implementing a clear principle set out in the European Commission's legislative proposal, i.e. the choice of how to access and use the digital euro should remain in users’ hands and not be controlled by payment service providers.

Will the ECB decide how much digital euro will be issued, based on a limit set each year, just like it does for banknotes and coins?

No. As is the case for cash, it will be up to citizens and firms to determine the digital euro’s use based on demand.

On which technological platform will the digital euro run?

It will run on a common European infrastructure developed exclusively by European providers, on which banks and private operators will be able to build new services.

We’ve already seen this in our innovation programmes: more than 70 operators worked with the ECB to explore the options the digital euro offers to provide new services to their customers. Some firms have already put forward solutions, such as automatic digital receipts or automatic payment upon delivery for online purchases. These are tangible innovations that will make life easier for people and firms.

We have just launched a second call for new ideas and projects, with the aim of speeding up innovation and creating new growth opportunities for the European payments industry.

Banks have complained because they are afraid of being left out of the digital euro loop. Are their fears justified?

Dialogue with the banking sector has been, and continues to be, an essential component of the project. The digital euro has not been devised as a replacement for banks, but to integrate and strengthen their own payment services. It will in fact be the banks and other authorised intermediaries that will distribute the digital euro, manage customer relationships and develop new services. The digital euro’s common standards will enable payment solutions developed in Europe to reach customers and merchants throughout the euro area.

Is it conceivable that one day there will only be the digital euro?

I don’t think so, and I don’t think that’s what anyone is aiming for. The goal is to create a payment system in which cash, the digital euro and the services already offered by banks coexist in such a way that resilience will be guaranteed and consumers will have freedom of choice.

The digital euro’s security will be built on multiple layers: advanced encryption, data segregation and regular testing for simulated attacks. The infrastructure will also be distributed across several European regions to ensure continuity of service even if part of the system were to become temporarily unavailable

Security is not an afterthought, but an integral requirement built into the project from the very start. We can draw on the Eurosystem’s wealth of experience in managing critical infrastructure such as TARGET.

Will we be able to buy everything with the digital euro, such as a coffee, a government bond or even a share?

The digital euro will be a means of payment, not a tool that the ECB will be able to use to tell people how to spend their own money.

People will be able to use it to buy a coffee, shop online, pay a bill or even transfer money to somebody else. In short, the digital euro will be available for in-store, online and person-to-person payments.

The ECB is a federal institution. What is still missing from the European Union for it to become truly complete and stronger from a financial perspective?

Europe already has a single currency and a single central bank. Now we must complete the process through the creation of a genuine European capital market, a more integrated banking system and common infrastructure in strategic sectors.

Today, Europeans' savings far exceed the financing needs of our firms, but a significant portion of those savings ends up outside Europe, while many European firms struggle to find the capital they need to grow, innovate and compete.

We need to find a way of ensuring European savings do more to finance the European economy. A start-up or an innovative small business should be able to access not just capital from its own country but available capital from anywhere in Europe with ease. To achieve this, there is work to be done on several fronts, including legal, regulatory and technological. On the technological front, we have a real opportunity: new technologies such as distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) allow us to overcome the fragmentation of market infrastructures. The Eurosystem is making a concerted effort towards this through the Pontes project, which went live on 21 September 2026. It enables the settlement of financial transactions carried out on DLT platforms using central bank money. Its complementary project, Appia, aims to create a fully integrated European financial ecosystem.

The common theme is the same as for the digital euro: we have a single currency, but in many sectors we still have fragmented national markets and infrastructures. Completing the European capital market would mean that citizens and firms could truly take advantage of the opportunities offered by a market operating on a continental scale.

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