ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch said, like more than 80% of global central banks, they’re working on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Policymakers have be ready to “embrace financial technological innovation which has the potential to transform payments and money faster, and in more disruptive ways, than ever before.”
The debate on CBDCs is “mainly analytical” for now. The timing of a policy debate will “largely depend on the preferences of households”. The lack of a concrete “business case” for a CBDC at present should and does not stop ECB from seriously exploring the optimal design of CBDC.
