The European Commission and the European Central Bank are looking into the potential of a digital Euro.
In Brief:
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They will work together to look at the policy, legal and technical challenges.
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The ECB will look at whether to start a digital Euro project in the coming months.
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It has stressed this will all happen before any decision is made to issue a digital currency at all.
What does this mean?
With the European Commission having just closed its consultation on the matter, the next step is to look at the wider implications of a possible digital Euro, which is where the ECB will be involved. Some key issues to look at will be privacy and security.
This follows the news last year that a number of governments are looking into a digital currency. China is piloting a digital Yuan and Japan is investigating the matter, while here in the UK, the Bank of England is designing a settlement service.
