Piero Cipollone: Money in the digital age
Speech by Mr Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at Istituto Affari Internazionali, Frankfurt am Main, 28 May 2026.
For centuries, central banks have issued money and safeguarded its value. That mandate has not changed.
What has changed is the technological environment around it. Consumers increasingly pay digitally, financial institutions explore new technologies, and new players and infrastructures are reshaping how money is used across the economy.
If central banks want to ensure that money remains stable, trusted and usable, they must help bring it up to date with technological developments.
In contrast, if central bank money does not adapt to technological change, it risks losing relevance in key parts of the economy. This would weaken the role of public money as an anchor of stability, as well as increase fragmentation and the risk of instability in the financial system. We believe the appropriate policy response is not to resist digitalisation but rather to extend central bank money into this new technological environment while preserving its core attributes: safety, uniformity and reliability.