European Central Bank Exploring Digital Currency

The European Central Bank is the latest central bank to say they are looking at developing a digital currency as they fear they are starting to fall behind other regions; board member Benoît Cœuré tells the FT, “a central bank digital currency could ensure that citizens remain able to use central bank money even if cash is eventually no longer used”.; Facebook’s plans for a digital currency has helped to shift the conversation where central banks are talking about the development of digital currencies in a serious way; the ECB’s potential currency is not meant as a replacement to any private sector plans but they did say the bar will be set very high for private solutions; Cœuré also talked about the development of payments platforms, saying more work was needed in Europe because they risk losing an economic edge if they rely upon solutions developed in the U.S. or Asia. Source