The Italian Banking Association launches experimental digital euro project

By Megha Bhattacharya

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has announced that it has started experimentation with the digital euro. The project is conducted in collaborated with  ABI Lab and other banks. The collaborative project aims to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a digital euro based on blockchain Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It is expected to boost the role of banks in the European Central Bank’s digital euro environment.

According to ABI, the experimentation project will explore the areas involving the infrastructure and distribution model as well as programmability for testing with use cases. Part of the experimentation will be carried out in partnership with SIA and the ABI Lab Chain banking infrastructure. The second work area will be divided into several working groups that will focus on use cases and will work in collaboration with the banks and NTT Data, PWC and Reply, which have made their resources available to the project.

The European Central Bank has conducted an in-depth study on the digital euro prepared by the Eurosystem’s High-Level Task Force on Central Bank Digital Currency (HLTF-CBDC) and approved by the Governing Council. This includes the publication of the “Report on a digital euro”. The organisation states that the launch of the digital euro will enhance support for the digitisation of the European economy, help in moving away from cash use as a means of payment and respond to the rising use of digital currencies issued by private entities or by central banks in other countries.