The focus groups suggested that people see the ability to “pay anywhere” as the most important feature of a new digital payment instrument. This emerged in all countries and age groups. Instant, easy, contactless payments, especially for person-to-person payments, were the second-most valued feature. Lastly, participants in the focus groups would like to see a solution that would allow instant person-to-person payments regardless of the platform used by the payers and payees. See Kantar Public (2022), Study on New Digital Payment Methods, March. 2. A digital economy is driven by network effects and digital money is a network good. This means that the more people hold and use the digital euro, the more attractive and valuable it would become to other users. This would, in turn, increase the potential number of people who may wish to adopt it as a regular means of payment. See Katz, M.L. and Shapiro, C. (1994), “Systems Competition and Network Effects”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 8, No 2, pp. 93-115; and Claessens, S., Dobos, G., Klingebiel, D. and Laeven, L. (2003), “The growing importance of networks in finance and its effects on competition”, in Nagurney, A. (ed. ), Innovations in financial and economic networks, Elgar, pp. 110135. 3. Legislative changes to the current regulatory framework for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism would be needed to enable high levels of privacy beyond the baseline scenario for lower-risk digital euro payments – namely simplified due diligence for low-value online transactions and exemption of low-value proximity payments from monitoring.

[6] The entire monetary and financial sector would be deprived of its anchor – central bank money – and would be exposed to potential instability. [7]  It is also conceivable that non-European digital payment solutions and technologies operated abroad might dominate our payments market, as we are already seeing in some segments like cards and online payments. This risk would be exacerbated by the expansion of means of payment offered by big techs, which could use their very large customer base to their advantage. This would raise questions about our autonomy and privacy in payments. It could even endanger European sovereignty. [8] Moreover, the international monetary system may see the emergence of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in large economies. Such CBDCs would offer benefits in terms of efficiency, scalability, liquidity and safety that would support their attractiveness internationally. And they would have the potential to facilitate cross-border payments, which may enhance their role as a global payment unit. [9] In such a context, not issuing a digital euro could undermine the international role of the euro and create additional risks to sovereignty. This scenario is not imminent, but it could potentially materialise in the future if we do not start acting today. And if we don’t act, we will also see increasing confusion about digital money. Crypto-assets are a case in point. [10] Unbacked crypto-assets, for example, cannot perform the functions of money. They are neither stable nor scalable. Transactions are slow and costly.