ECB's Cipollone says central banks must shape money's future in the public interest
Briefing by News4U · First published
Today ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said in a Tirana keynote that central banks cannot merely observe the transformation of money from the sidelines and have a duty to shape it in the public interest. At a regional card-schemes conference on 5 November 2026, he outlined four Eurosystem initiatives: modernising euro banknotes, developing a digital euro to complement cash, settling tokenised assets in central bank money via Pontes while designing an Appia tokenised-finance blueprint, and interlinking fast payment systems across borders. He said the digital euro pilot is planned for the second half of 2027, with a potential first issuance in 2029 if legislation is finished by end-2026, and noted Pontes recently settled a €1 billion digitally issued ESM bond. [1]
Sources
- Shaping the future of money
European Central Bank · · Excerpt