Italy’s Banks Are Ready For Digital Euro Trials

The Italian Banking Association (ABI), which consists of 700 Italian banking institutions, has recently expressed its desire to try and speed up the overall implementation of The digital Euro, a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) backed by the European Central Bank (ECB). The ABI plans on doing this through the participation of projects and experiments related to it. It was just last year when the ABI had started to set up a working group to try and research crypto and digital assets themselves.

Sharing Ten Considerations As A First Bid

The group itself had shared ten considerations for the digital Euro, doing so in the announcement they made Thursday. The first was that there should be full compliance with the relevant European regulatory framework, which must be preserved above all else. Alongside this, monetary stability was another critical factor the ABI hammered for.

The group further prioritized the need to be completely compliant with the regulations of the EU, citing that it will help win over the trust of the public. This compliant framework must be upheld by banks, according to the ABI, who stated that they would play a critical role in upholding the regulations and trust.

Aiming To Speed Up Every Facet Of Banking

The second guideline issued by the ABI, is in regards to the country’s own distributed ledger technology (DLT) project, the Spunta Project. The ABI explained that the project itself stood as an initiative run by ABI Lab, aiming to integrate blockchain technology to help speed up the processing of interbank settlements.

The group stated that a CBDC would lead to innovations in the future, especially in regards to traditional banking systems such as machine-to-machine transactions, and peer-to-peer transactions. Further fields that could be innovated is the ability to strictly manage interest rate and exchange rate risks, thanks to the ability to hold a programmable digital currency.

A New Dawn Of Innovation

The announcement explained that a digital currency, being programmable, stands as a key innovation within the financial space. The ABI made it clear that they believe that this will profoundly revolutionize exchange and money altogether. The ABI believes that there’s a large potential for added value through this CBDC, especially so when it comes to the efficiency of the management and operation processes.

Italy isn’t the first nation to show an express interest in experimenting with this potential digital Euro, and it probably won’t be the last, either. It was earlier this year when the central bank o France sent out its call for proposals to start experiments with a potential CBDC. The Dutch Central Bank, in turn, had announced that it stands willing to trial the digital Euro, as well.