UniCredit CEO endorses digital euro with banks’ role intact

UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel stated that he will support the digital euro if banks maintain their central role in implementation and operation.

UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said at a conference organized by Mediobanca that a digital euro could be a “very good thing” if financial lenders maintain their central role, Reuters reported.

Speaking at the event, Orcel emphasized that the success of the digital euro depends on preserving the integral position of banks in the flow of money and described the launch of the digital currency as “a matter of sovereignty for Europe.”

The European Central Bank aims to launch the digital euro to make the euro zone “more robust” and support Europe’s “strategic autonomy and monetary sovereignty”. While the launch is still years away, discussions continue on how banks will integrate digital euro services and their impact on the industry’s evolving business models.

“I guess the real question is how this will happen: … will banks have the infrastructure and framework for the digital euro, as they do for the cash euro? “If the banks are fully integrated, so ‘Dear Customer, you can have cash or you can have digital’… then it will be seamless and it will be very good for Europe and very good for the banks.”

Andrea Orcel

In a presentation in April, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone emphasized that commercial banks will manage digital euro services, consumers will benefit from free services, while merchants and service providers will be subject to relevant fees. The presentation also stated that consumer banks will receive fees from commercial banks, but specific details and the exact fee share were not disclosed.

Speaking at Money20/20, European Central Bank digital euro director Evelien Witlox underlined the ECB’s intention to proceed cautiously on the digital euro, despite the pressures arising from the decline in cash use and the emergence of alternative currencies and digital payments.

If issued, the digital euro would become legal tender, allowing the public to use central bank money for daily transactions. Witlox said this would be a potential benefit for citizens, as merchants offering digital forms of payment would be required to accept the digital euro.