Q10: How would the ECB ensure that the digital euro is inclusive and accessible?

The European Central Bank answers:

The digital euro would be a public good, like banknotes and coins are today, but in digital form. The ECB is designing the digital euro and the digital euro app with inclusion as a guiding principle to ensure users are able to make payments under all circumstances. The digital euro app would comply with the European Accessibility Act with a focus on cognitive accessibility to ensure that everyone can quickly learn how to use it.

Informed by user research, as well as interactions with civil society and consumer advocacy organisations, the digital euro’s design embraces the needs of vulnerable consumers. Organisations highlighted the importance of a universally accessible solution, intuitive design and in-person support. Free access to basic digital euro services would also be available to people without a bank account, closing the digital exclusion gap faced by individuals with no fixed address or beneficiaries of international protection.

Under the proposed digital euro Regulation presented by the European Commission, banks distributing the digital euro would be required to provide basic digital euro payment services for free when requested by their customers.

The digital euro would be designed to accommodate the needs of everyone, leaving no one behind.

We answer them:

Physical cash is the most inclusive form of payment, and the digital euro will likely be detrimental to cash use (cf. Q4). Holding and paying with digital euros will require ownership of supported hardware, and the skills to use it. Today, many citizens struggle with modern banking applications requiring multi-factor authentication, and we cannot find any answers for this challenge in the published designs for the digital euro. In 2024, between 7% and 8% of citizens in the euro area, across all age groups, had no access to an account or a card for digital payments, respectively [1]. Moreover, the ECB has given no concrete indications as to how it plans to work on solutions for illiterate or innumerate users. It is also left unclear who will pay for the additional workload and costs connected to face-to-face services by public entities or participating PSPs so that “no one is left behind”. Overall, the central bank underestimates the causes of the digital divide and the digital euro will likely deepen the rift between those with access to modern technology and those living without.

  1. European Central Bank, Study on the payment attitudes of consumers in the euro area (SPACE) – 2024. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/ecb_surveys/space/shared/pdf/ecb.space2024~19d46f0f17.en.pdf, 2024.