The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, made a convincing speech about the dangers of not issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). While he’s a persuasive speaker, ironically this might be his strongest speech in favor of a digital euro. And he gave it after he left his position as European Central Bank (ECB) leader of the project.
Previously the ECB stated that a key digital euro driver is to reduce the European Union’s dependence on international payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard. The gist is not new, but Panetta fleshed out the details rather eloquently.
On the Visa and Mastercard front, three key points stood out. Firstly, as money becomes more digital, so does the dependence on card networks that are not EU-based. Secondly, despite the EU introducing Interchange Fee Regulations in 2015, the average cost of card payments is now higher. And within the EU, international card scheme fees almost doubled between 2016 and 2021.
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