Germany’s Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz expressed his views on a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) in an online conference on future payments in Europe. Scholz said that the Europeans should work very hard to find a solution for digital payments.
According to his statement, the European Central Bank (ECB) should not just wait and see to make a decision on the ‘Digital Euro’. Scholz added that there is a huge demand for the use of digital currencies from consumers and businesses.
“On the digital euro, I think we should work very hard. It is nothing where we should wait and see. We should be able to decide at any time that now we should do something with a digital euro,” Scholz said in the conference.
The German Finance Minister spoke hard against cryptocurrencies in the past, he rejected the idea of Facebook’s Libra project and a digital coin by JPMorgan. Scholz clearly mentioned his stance against privately-issued cryptocurrencies. However, the German official seems to be in support of a Government-backed digital currency.
CBDCs
In recent months, central banks around the world have announced developments regarding the CBDCs. Finance Magnates reported the initiatives by countries like the UK, China, and Japan to develop digital currencies backed by the relevant governments. UK’s Treasury Chancellor, Rishi Sunak supported CBDCs and termed stablecoins and privately-issued digital currencies as a cheaper and faster way to make payments.
There have been developments regarding the digital euro as well, the ECB president, Christine Lagarde said earlier this month that the ECB will proceed with the launch of a digital euro in the next two to four years. But, the key issue mentioned by Scholz is the time. He made it clear in today’s speech that the ECB should not wait for too long to make a decision on the digital euro.
