PWC report
Study: High costs for the introduction of digital euros
The EU should receive a digital currency according to the plans of the European Commission and Central Bank. The banks have great concerns and are now being confirmed by a study.
According to a study by the PWC consulting company, the introduction of the digital euro will cause considerable costs for European banks. The study estimates the change costs for 19 in detail examined banks over two billion euros. Extrapolated to the entire euro area, the total costs could be between 18 and 30 billion euros depending on the scenario.
The PWC study on the costs of a digital euro was commissioned by the three European credit associations (European Credit Sector Associations – ECSAS).
Introduction at the earliest in a few years
For years, the currency keepers in the euro area have been working on a digital variant of the European Community Currency. With a digital euro, the Euro-Note banks want to counter private providers, especially from the USA such as PayPal, MasterCard and Visa, which are currently dominating the market for digital payments in Europe, a European digital payment offer.
Most banks and savings banks in Germany are critical of the introduction of a digital euro. In their view, it has not yet been clear which specific additional benefit of the digital euro should offer compared to existing payment methods. The established systems such as real -time transfers already meet many requirements for speed and security. A parallel system would primarily cause additional costs and complexity without creating a recognizable added value for customers.
High costs in several areas
The current PWC study now examines in detail what costs will be incurred for the banks if the digital euro is introduced. Cost drivers include adapting mobile banking apps, web banking and the physical payment cards. The changes for paid terminals are also expensive. Furthermore, the ATM infrastructure would have to be adjusted. PWC estimates the costs for this to an average of 9 million euros per bank.
The study authors from the PWC locations in Munich and Milan also emphasize that the introduction of the digital euro will bind almost half of the available specialists for years. The personnel bottleneck could block innovations in payment transactions.
Website ECB on the subject of digital euro EU for the digital euro
dpa
Source: Stern
