A digital euro would give users the highest level of privacy current technology can provide, European Central Bank executive board member Piero Cipollone said, offering the ECB’s sharpest public answer yet to criticism that a central bank digital currency could allow Frankfurt to track how Europeans spend.
Cipollone made the remarks in an interview with Italian outlet ilsussidiario.net conducted on August 10 and published by the ECB on Monday. Asked whether the central bank could monitor payment habits and track how each citizen uses the currency, he said offline payments would move directly between individuals, with details available only to the payer and the payee.
Offline payments and online identity limits
For online transactions, Cipollone said, the Eurosystem would not be able to identify the people making or receiving payments. Only the banks involved in a transaction would be able to identify those parties, including for anti-money laundering purposes.
"The digital euro guarantees the maximum level of privacy that current technology can offer," Cipollone said.
That does not mean payments would disappear from view altogether. Commercial banks distributing the currency would still see payment activity and would continue to handle the same identity and reporting obligations they already carry today. An ECB spokesperson told Decrypt in December that privacy features are built into the design, but they do not exempt the currency from rules that apply to all money.
Legislative process moves forward in the EU
The digital euro project is now shifting more decisively into the EU lawmaking process. The European Parliament agreed its negotiating position on the regulation in July, and talks with member states are targeting a deal by the end of 2026.
The ECB has also named 36 payment providers for a 12-month pilot beginning in the second half of 2027. The group includes Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Revolut. First issuance is targeted for 2029.
Europe and the U.S. have taken different routes on CBDC privacy
On the same privacy question, Washington reached the opposite conclusion and wrote that position into law in July. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act bars the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until the end of 2030. After that date, it would still need explicit authorization from Congress.
The Senate passed the bill 85-5 in June, and it became law on July 11 without President Donald Trump’s signature.
The ban includes an exemption for dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless and private. That leaves stablecoin issuers regulated under last year’s GENIUS Act untouched.
Cipollone again points to stablecoin costs for Europe
Cipollone has argued that this route carries a cost for Europe. In July, he warned that rising stablecoin use would strip European banks of retail deposits, adding to the fees and transaction data they are already losing to mobile payment platforms.