Launch of digital euro currency 'always two or three years away'

Some five years ago, the European Central Bank tabled the idea of ​​implementing a digital euro, a new payment method for the eurozone.

Its introduction has been studied since then, but the process is being "slow," as noted by the economist and executive director of the European Association of Financial Advisors and Planners (EFPA) in Spain, Josep Soler.

"It's always two or three years away for it to be launched," he says. Meanwhile, the ECB confirms that it is continuing to work on it.

Soler predicts that in the end the digital euro "will be less important than it was initially thought." 

On the other hand, CEO and founder of Monei, Àlex Saix, predicts that it will be "the revolution of this century."

The payment platform Monei is the only Catalan fintech chosen, along with Caixabank and Bizum, to participate in the first tests of the digital currency.

It has participated in one of the various technical working groups formed by around 60 companies with the task of carrying out transactions between issuers and recipients on a small scale, with the same infrastructure that the digital euro will use.

Saiz says the digital euro will bring a "new paradigm" with "more robust" guarantees and the "solvency" of the European Central Bank.

He believes that society is not yet aware of the "impact" the digital currency will have.

Josep Soler, meanwhile, is more cautious about the impact of its arrival, and says it will have a "much more secondary role" than first planned.