People and companies in Estonia can make suggestions until the middle of January for how a digital euro could be used in the future and what solutions could be used for introducing a digital euro.

“A lot of financial technology companies have emerged in Estonia, and our companies would certainly have good reason to share their typically Estonian pragmatic and smart ideas about the possible solutions for the digital euro in the future”, said Rainer Olt, head of the Eesti Pank Payments and Settlement Systems Department.

Central banks in the euro area currently provide euros in two forms, as cash that is intended for people and businesses to use, and in a digital form for banks and other financial institutions. Technological development, digitisation and innovation have changed the payment behaviour of people, and in this context the central banks of the euro area have started to make preparations for research into creating a digital euro. This could allow central banks of the euro area to provide money in digital form to private individuals and businesses in future as well as to banks. The idea behind creating the digital euro is to make certain that citizens of the euro area will in future be able to use money that is safe, trustworthy, and simple and convenient to use. The Governing Council of the European Central Bank has taken no decision about creating a digital euro, but it has given guidelines for analysing and testing the technology needed for creating such a currency.

Rainer Olt noted that many Estonian firms have shown their ability with financial technology, such as Transferwise and Guardtime, which is working with Eesti Pank to research an innovative technological solution based on the core technology of e-government in Estonia that could be used for issuing central bank digital currency into circulation. Other central banks in the euro area have joined Eesti Pank in this research project.

People and companies can give their opinion through the website of the European Central Bank about how the central bank could deliver a digital euro to the public and to businesses. They can also suggest how the digital euro could be used for transactions between businesses or in automatic transactions and in digital commerce and securites settlements.

The public consultation of the European Central Bank will run until 12 January next year. More about the idea of creating the digital euro can be found on the European Central Bank website.

For further information:
Viljar Rääsk
Head of Communications
Eesti Pank
6680 745, 5275 055
Email: [email protected]

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