European
Central Bank Shouldn’t ‘Discourage’ Private Stablecoins, President Says
The president of the European
Central Bank, Christina Lagarde, addressed a number of financial topics in a
recent interview, including private stablecoins and the ECB’s plans to
potentially launch a cryptocurrency.
During the interview Lagarde revealed the ECB wants
to “play an active role in this field, rather than just acting as observers
of a changing world.” She added that the central bank will keep on assessing
whether the benefits of issuing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC)
are worth the costs. She added, however, that such a currency could have
“major implications for the financial sector and for the transmission of
monetary policy.”
Addressing the launch of
private stablecoins like Facebook’s Libra or Tether’s USDT, she said:
“The prospect of central bank initiatives
should neither discourage nor crowd out private market-led solutions for fast
and efficient retail payments in the euro area.”
Lagarde also confirmed there’s
an expert task force at the ECB working to determine the potential benefits
of the launch of a digital euro.
