A decision regarding the digital Euro will be made in the following months, even if the release of it may actually take years, according to Christine Lagarde, the European Central Bank boss.
The president of the ECB revealed that the entire process of creating a CBDC may take about four years, but that the Bank will make a decision whether to continue with it or not by “mid-2021.”
“But the whole process—let’s be realistic about it—will in my view take another four years,” Lagarde declared. “Maybe a little more, but I would hope that we could keep it within four years because it’s a technical endeavor as well as a fundamental change.”
Lagarde commented that the ECB plans on making a decision soon on whether to release a CBDC. Since “mid-2021” is rather close, in the case that lawmakers are given the green light, it is very likely that work on creating the necessary technology may start soon.
“We need to make sure that we do it right. We owe it to the Europeans. They need to feel safe and secure. They need to feel that they are holding a central bank-backed digital banknote.”
Lagarde commented in 2020 that the digital euro was a good idea since it has the ability to complement cash and maybe even create new jobs.
China is enjoying a huge head start in the CBDCs race, while the US is lagging behind – as Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chairman, revealed recently, the US central bank is not rushing a CBDC.
Lagarde also added that “We need to make sure that we are not going to break any system but enhance a system.”