The European Central Bank (ECB) has outlined its vision for a digital euro app.

Speaking at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Fabio Panetta, member of the executive board of the ECB, said the plans to create a digital euro come in response to changing payments behaviour throughout the EU.

Panetta pointed out that in the Netherlands and Finland, cash is only used in one fifth of transactions, and overall euro cash payments have fallen from 72 per cent to 59 per cent in the past three years.

Two propositions would either involve allowing supervised intermediaries to integrate the digital euro into their own platforms, or for the Eurosystem to create its own digital app.

Panetta said: “The app would ensure that no matter where you travel in the euro area, the digital euro would always be recognised and you would be able to pay with it.”

The digital euro would complement cash, however, and not replace it.

“Together with cash, a digital euro would offer Europeans access to means of payment that allow them to pay everywhere in the euro area,” Panetta explained.

He added that a digital euro would serve to safeguard the EU’s monetary sovereignty while strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy.

The possibility of an app for the digital euro follows the ECB's proposal for digital euro regulation in the second quarter of 2023.

Launched in 2021, the investigatory phase included a prototyping exercise to test how well potential back-end solutions developed by the Eurosystem could be integrated with front-end prototypes.

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