Italian banks preparing to trial a digital Euro

In 2019, ABI set up a working group to research digital and crypto assets. ABI expressed its desire to help speed up the implementation of a digital currency backed by the European Central Bank (ECB) by participating in related projects and experiments.

The group shared 10 considerations for a digital euro in the announcement. ABI prioritised the need for a digital currency framework to be fully compliant with EU regulations to win the public’s trust and said banks will play a critical role in upholding that trust, according o CoinDesk.

Furthermore, the group said Italian banks are already working with distributed ledger technology, referencing the Spunta project. The project was an initiative by the ABI Lab to integrate blockchain to speed up the processing of interbank settlements.

According to the group, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) would lead to future innovations to the traditional banking system like P2P transactions, machine-to-machine transactions, and the ability to manage exchange rate and interest rate risk thanks to the programmable capabilities of digital currencies.

The Italian Central Bank has yet to comment on ABI’s announcement.