Finance
ECB's Panetta sees fully digital commercial bank money in future
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 21, 2026
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 21, 2026
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
ECB's Panetta envisions a future where commercial bank money is fully digital, complementing central bank currency. Stablecoins will remain secondary, pegged to traditional currency.
MILAN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Commercial bank money is bound to become fully tokenised in the future, like central bank money, and the two types of currency will continue to anchor the monetary system, a top European Central Bank policymaker said on Wednesday.
Addressing the Italian banking association, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta said it was hard to predict how stablecoins will develop, but their role in the monetary system can only be complementary because their stability can only be guaranteed by a traditional type of currency as a peg.
(Reporting by Valentina Za and Antonella Cinelli; editing by Cristina Carlevaro)
Digital bank money refers to currency that is created and managed by commercial banks in a digital format, allowing for electronic transactions and transfers without the need for physical cash.
Tokenisation is the process of converting rights to an asset into a digital token on a blockchain, allowing for easier transfer, ownership tracking, and enhanced security in transactions.
Central banks are national financial institutions responsible for managing a country's currency, money supply, and interest rates, aiming to ensure economic stability and control inflation.
Commercial bank money is the money created by commercial banks through lending activities, which exists in digital form and is used for transactions within the banking system.
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