Spain's central bank, Banco de Espaa, has joined the chorus of European banking institutions preparing their customers for the potential benefits of a digital euro.

On October 19, the central bank issued a short text explaining the nature and applications of the European Union's potential central bank digital currency (CBDC).

According to the bank, physical cash "does not allow to exploit all of the advantages offered by the growing digitalization of the economy and society."

The digital euro, on the other hand, will make electronic payments a critical component of the financial system.

The authors emphasize the possibility of making offline payments with the digital euro, emphasizing its level of privacy, which is comparable to cash.

They also express reservations that, in the online form, users' data would still be visible only to their financial institutions and not to Eurosystem, the CBDC infrastructure provider.

The current "preparation phase," which began on October 18, will be completed by 2025, according to the project calendar published in the text. A final decision on issuing a pan-EU CBDC, however, is yet to be made.

The Bank of Finland recently expressed a similar positive attitude toward the digital euro. Tuomas Välimäki, a board member, described it as "the most topical project" in the European payment sector.

The European Central Bank (ECB) shared a link to a landing page dedicated to basic information about the digital euro on October 25. It guarantees a "easier life" and a "stronger Europe."

Earlier this month, the ECB's governing council announced the start of the "preparation phase" for the digital euro project. It will last two years and will be focused on finalizing digital currency rules and selecting potential issuers.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bank-of-spain-embraces-digital-euro-explains-benefits

https://www.bde.es/wbe/es/noticias-eventos/blog/el-euro-digital--que-es-y-que-nos-aportaria.html

https://twitter.com/ecb/status/1717103712651358235