Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will probably become legal tender in the jurisdictions of their issuance, the European Central Bank?s (ECB) Fabio Panetta said.
- Panetta, a member of the ECB?s executive board, said this was ?likely? at a panel in Helsinki on Tuesday, according to a Bloomberg report. However, this status ?should not be taken for granted,? he added.
- CBDCs being legal tender would give them an edge over other payment options provided by private companies and help achieve wider use by the public.
- ?It would be quite awkward not to have legal-tender status for an additional instrument issued by a central bank,? Panetta said.
- A document published today outlining the ECB?s policy considerations for introducing a digital euro lists the possibility of legal tender status as one of its principal areas for investigation.
- Other considerations include interaction with the European retail payments market, design choices, use cases and what front and back-end technical infrastructure could best handle these issues.
- The ECB has been discussing a CBDC since the start of the year and said in July it was commencing an investigative phase that would last 24 months.
Read more: Digital Euro Isn?t Guaranteed After Experiment, ECB Advisor Says