ECB announces CBDC will not be introduced before 2026

The central bank director stated this at a virtual conference of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). According to the ECB’s director, this is due to technicalities since the introduction of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will have a strong impact on payment transactions and the financial markets.

The ECB is currently still in the process of preparing a digital version of the common currency. In mid-2021, the Governing Council will decide whether a formal project should be launched. According to Fabio Panetta, the Governing Council should then decide whether the project will be implemented, and this implementation could also take around two to three years. Some European countries are already open to European digital currencies, such as the Dutch central bank, which declared that the country was a suitable place for a test run with a digital euro.