Silvia Attanasio, is the Head of Innovation at ABI (Italian Banking Association). Previously to that role she worked for 17 years at ABI Labs, the centre of research and innovation at ABI. Previously Silvia introduced us to Spunta, the private permissioned DLT project for interbank reconciliation. In this podcast she shares with us some of the work that ABI and its consortium of Italian Banks are looking to offer to the European Central Bank in its development of its CBDC called the Digital Euro.

 What is blockchain?Blockchain is a disruptive technology that can deeply transform the way we transact. It may add transparency and eliminate frictions in transactions. Blockchain is not a cost cutting technology. It is a technology that can bring some efficiency gains in due course. Blockchain technology can transform processes

 Update on SpuntaSilvia featured on Insureblocks on the 22nd March 2020 where she introduced Spunta, a private permissioned DLT project for interbank reconciliation.

The new application streamlines and automates the reconciliation of transactions, improving governance of the overall Spunta process, a nostro vostro account, and moves from a slow error prone settlement system to a real time management of the reconciliation process.

Today after three waves of migration, nearly 100 banks are in production operating the Spunta DLT daily. Each bank has its own DLT node, geographically distributed in nine different cities across the country processing 322 million transactions.

 Introduction to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

The term CBDC denotes money that a central bank could create in digital form and make available to the general public. It would not be another currency, it will be another form of the existing currency.

In January 2021, The Bank of International Settlement ran an updated survey with central banks around world. In it they found that 86% of central banks are engaged in CBDC work. P from 80% in May 2020. Central banks representing 1/5 of the world’s population are likely to issue a retail CBDC in the next three years.

The goal of improving financial inclusion is much more pronounced in emerging economies, while it is less present in advanced economies like European Union, where the main objectives are the security and efficiency of the payment system.

 The Digital EuroThe European Central Bank’s CBDC is called the Digital Euro. The ECV see’s three main benefits in exploring the possibility of launching a Digital Euro:

Support digitisation for a native digital European economyRespond to the declining usage of cash as a means of payment.Tackling sovereignty concerns related to foreign private digital means of payments in the euro area or possible future foreign CBDC

There are a few more benefits from the bank’s perspective that Silvia highlighted such as the possibility of enabling use cases based on the programmability of the currency, and the possible application to transactions from counterparties as a machine.

 Preserving properties of cash, anonymity and privacy in a Digital EuroFabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB stated that in a blog post: “Central to all our discussions is the fact that a digital euro would be a means of payment that would complement cash, not replace it. Abolishing cash is not on the table, as ECB President Christine Lagarde and other members of the ECB Board and Governing Council have stated publicly on several occasions.”

With regards to anonymity. If the identity of Digital Euro users were not verified at any stage of a transaction then they would be anonymous and AML / CFT mechanisms (anti-money laundering / combating the financing of terrorism) wouldn’t be effective. Silvia believes that this would require at least a light identity verification when opening a digital wallet. However as the implementation of a Digital Euro may happen on a DLT platform it is possible to ensure...