200 German Banks Urge Digital Euro

András Györfi
Nov 5 · 2 min read

As reported by the Bundesverband deutscher Banken (Association of German Banks), an organization formed in 1951, over 200 banks in the country raised their voices to say: a “programmable”, digital euro is needed.

Published on the 30th of October, the article starts with Facebook’s Libra, stating that it’s a big question, how the monetary system will look in the “digital age”, and who will shape it.

They follow with a harsh statement, adding that any currency, regardless of who the provider is must fit into the state-determined system, otherwise “chaos”, and “instability” is waiting upon us.

They also note that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be the “engine of structural change” in the global economy, which has the potential to alter how we store value, also how we pay.

The “position paper” as called by the Association does not focus merely on the “Facebook currency”, they believe that Mark Zuckerberg’s proposed digital money is merely one aspect of a “major issue”, which is the soon-to-come, global change in finance.

An 11 point list of the position of the organisation representing some 200 plus private banks is next, in which they repeat the importance of stability in the economy, speak about digital money as “innovation with great potential”, most importantly they suggest a “crypto-based, digital euro”.

They also add that to ensure public trust and legal certainty, the highest regulatory standards have to be met, “compliance is essential”. Legal classification of the new, digital money is a must-have, as well as a framework of uniform supervisory and regulatory.

Processing of personal data, consumer protection standards, cooperation between European market participants, potential VAT treatment of digital currencies is also part of the report, which follows with an elaborate, detailed description of digital money in general.

The necessity of a digital euro is the most important message of the paper, however as detailed, it has to be interoperable with book money, a pan-European payment platform is also suggested.

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