The European Central Bank (ECB) has just announced the establishment of an investment plan of 1.3 billion euros for the development of its digital euro.
The European Union is determined to bring its central bank digital currency (CNBC) into the world. The ECB thus explained in October that it had entered the preparatory phase of this project, while today, it is yet another step which seems to have been reached. A significant investment will in fact be put in place for the creation of this digital asset.
The EU launches a call for projects
1.3 billion euros. The sum leaves no doubt as to the seriousness of the ECB’s intentions for the creation of the famous digital euro, of which we are hearing more and more. It should be used to set up a certain number of services surrounding this currency, according to the call for projects posted on the website of the European Central Bank.
“ The framework agreements resulting from this procedure only concern some of the services linked to the digital euro. Other elements, such as payment settlement, would be provided internally by the Eurosystem » is thus explained. As a reminder, the Eurosystem brings together the ECB and the national banks of the member countries of the euro zone.
Five initiatives in total
The plan includes a total of five initiatives:
- Creating aliases to replace long account numbers during payments;
- The provision of an application and its development kit intended for the digital euro;
- The development of a solution for securing payment information in transactions;
- The development of a risk and fraud management solution;
- Finally, the design of offline payment services.
The last two entries are the most important for Brussels, since they concentrate the vast majority of the planned investment. The issue of risk and fraud management will thus receive an envelope of 237 million euros, while that of offline payments will be allocated 662 million euros.
Source : European Central Bank, DL News
9