European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde on Thursday emphasized the importance of accelerating the digital euro at both the wholesale and retail levels to decrease Europe's vulnerability.
Speaking before the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Lagarde urged "priority attention" to expediting the digital euro by establishing a legislative framework. She noted that there is a "serious series of changes happening in that sphere," including the United States' focus on stablecoin and support for cryptocurrencies that "suddenly find their way into this reserve account that is being set up."
"I believe that in order to reduce our potential vulnerability, which exists as of today, we should be able to have both wholesale and retail, as well as payment infrastructure in place so that we do not actually depend on someone else deciding whether or not we should be entitled to continue to operate on the backbone of the existing non-European solutions," Lagarde said.
