Do we need a digital euro, and why? What might it look like? And how would it differ from other means of payment?

Our host Katie Ranger puts these questions to digital euro expert Evelien Witlox.

The views expressed are those of the speakers and not necessarily those of the European Central Bank.

Published on 15 October 2022 and recorded on 7 October 2022.

In this episode:

1:11 – Commercial versus central bank money

What a digital euro is, how paying with it might work and how it would differ from the money in people’s bank accounts.

5:52 – Why are we looking into a digital euro now?

What made the ECB start exploring a digital euro in October 2021 and why we need one.

8:45 – What a digital euro might look like

What benefits a digital euro would have as a means of payment and how people would pay with it.

13:35 – Keep an eye out for the next episode!

There's still a lot to be said on this topic. In the next episode, we'll look at how your data would be handled with a digital euro and what it could mean, politically, for Europe.

Additional material:

A digital euro

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/digital_euro/html/index.en.html

Explainer: the digital euro and the importance of central bank money

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/explainers/html/digital_euro_central_bank_money.en.html

Explainer: what is money?

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/educational/explainers/tell-me-more/html/what_is_money.en.html

The ECB Podcast: is it time for a digital euro?

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/tvservices/podcast/html/ecb.pod201106_episode11.en.html

European Central Bank

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html

You can also listen to The ECB Podcast on SoundCloud, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, YouTube, Amazon Music and many more: pod.link/ecbpodcast