Piero Cipollone: Interview with Corriere della Sera

Cipollone's Corriere della Sera interview is entirely about the digital euro: timeline, pilot and legislation. He confirms a possible 2029 launch, says first real payments land in under 12 months, and expects the Brussels legislative text ready by year end. There is no monetary policy content anywhere in the text: no rates, no inflation, no balance of views. For the front end and the curve this is a non-event.

What’s new: No material monetary policy news. The digital euro is a known multi-year project, so the interviewer-teased 2029 date is a firming of a timeline, not a surprise. The only incremental detail is operational: pilot launched in the summer, first payments under 12 months, 36 of nearly 60 pilot applicants selected, EU legislative text due by year end. None of this moves the front end or the curve.

KEY FINDINGS

• Cipollone dates first live digital euro payments at 'less than 12 months' and floats 2029 for full launch. Schedule colour for a payments-infrastructure project, not a policy signal the rates desk trades.
• He says the EU legislative text needed to begin should be ready 'by the end of the year', while stressing 'not everything is up to the ECB'. Flags a Brussels political dependency that could slip the timeline, with no market read.
• The pilot drew nearly 60 applications and the ECB selected 36 of them, including several Italian banks. Signals broad private-sector engagement in euro-area payments plumbing, not a macro input.
• He frames the project around strategic autonomy, warning that 'Without our own digital payment system, we are at the mercy of other operators.' Geopolitical framing relevant to card schemes and payment names, not to sovereign rates.
• He calls merchant card-acceptance fees 'opaque and often high' and claims digital euro could halve small merchants' acceptance cost. A swipe at card networks; a longer-run competitive threat to incumbents, no rate implication.

FROM THE DOCUMENT

It might seem a long way off, but actually the pilot project was launched in the summer and the first tests will start next year, with the first payments being made in less than 12 months.

So, as I said before, not everything is up to the ECB. Fortunately, we are nearly there: by the end of the year the legislative text should be ready.

In May we received nearly 60 applications to take part in the pilot next year – including from several Italian banks. We have selected 36 of them.

Without our own digital payment system, we are at the mercy of other operators.