ECB Board Member Says Digital Euro Will Provide Strong Privacy

Piero Cipollone, a member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board, said the planned digital euro would provide the Eurosystem with the highest possible level of privacy. According to comments reported by Decrypt, the Eurosystem would not be able to connect individual users with their transactions. However, the banks and other payment service providers involved in processing digital euro payments could still identify the customers using their services. The distinction means privacy would apply to the central Eurosystem’s access to transaction information, while financial institutions handling payments would retain their own ability to link activity to account holders. Cipollone’s remarks address how transaction data could be treated within the proposed digital currency system. The digital euro remains a policy and payments topic for the ECB, with privacy forming a central part of the discussion around its design.