Mr Panetta, ECB President Christine Lagarde has announced that within five years at the latest the central bank could introduce the digital euro. What is that? Why is it needed? People are paying less and less with cash and more and more digitally, at supermarket checkouts or online. One in two Europeans would now prefer to pay digitally, and the pandemic has accelerated this development. As a supplement to cash, people want an efficient digital means of payment which protects data and is accepted throughout the euro area. We want to be able to respond to these demands swiftly, since the trend is going to grow ... (full story)