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The Dutch central bank wants to play the leading role in developing digital Euro

The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, claims that it is well-placed to develop and trial a digital Euro. The central
The Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank, claims that it is well-placed to develop and trial a digital Euro. The central bank said that it is ready to play the leading role in developing a Europe-wide digital currency.

In a 45-page report released by the Dutch central bank, on April 21, the De Nederlandsche Bank said it was ready to play a leading role with research and development into its own digital currency as well as a Europe-wide digital currency. The central bank said that it wants to be the proving ground for central bank digital currencies in the European Union. A centralized digital Euro is expected to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper for all member states who participate.

“The Netherlands would be a suitable testing ground for a digital euro.”

According to the report released by the Dutch central bank, the country is well suited to become the testing ground for central bank digital currencies and digital euro. In the report released by the central bank, it also singled out cryptocurrency Libra as a possible threat to monetary stability and conceded it was “the reason why the DNB and other central banks are now considering issuing their own digital currency.”

People are hesitant to use physical money amid pandemic.

There has been a surge of people using digital means of payment for day to day transactions since the coronavirus pandemic has begun. The DNB report also noted that stores that remain open amid lockdown are avoiding physical cash. The report says, “many stores now ask clients specifically not to pay in cash, which effectively means that only private money is accepted.” Earlier, the People’s Bank of China, in a statement, said that it would undoubtedly continue its CBDC development.

Both South Korea and Sweden have launched pilot programs to assess the feasibility of issuing a centralized digital currency. Several EU members have recently begun experimenting with a digital euro. The European Central Bank president is also supporting the bank’s involvement in developing a CBDC. However, the Dutch central bank noted that any decision on a digital Euro would require cooperation between member states in Europe.

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