A surprising recent remark by Christine Lagarde raised October 2025 as target date. But what does it really mean? How should we react?
Frankfurt. 11 March 2025. Rumours have it that the ECB will introduce the Digital Euro in October 2025. Fortunately, this is not quite true. But what will happen in October 2025? And what do we need to do now?
Source: Substack, Richard A. Werner, 11 March 2025
The rumours started with a Q&A session of ECB head Lagarde at a press conference by the ECB on 6 March 2025 in Frankfurt. The statement that triggered this rumour in recent days was in response to a question from a journalist.
Lagarde was asked the following question:
“…my second question is on the digital euro, because the Trump administration decided to stop the Federal Reserve’s project on central bank digital currency, and it looks like the Fed might be on hold on the digital dollar for about four years. So it looks like a kind of a golden opportunity for the ECB and the plans of the digital euro. What is the position of the ECB on these issues with these changes also from the United States, and how can the ECB push forward with the creation of a digital euro?”
She says:
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“…On your second point, I tend to share your views. Nature does not like a vacuum. We started working on the digital euro way back, actually when I started my term 5 1/2 years ago…. I am not claiming parentality on the digital euro because my colleague Benoit Coeuré had already committed a speech on this matter before I arrived, but I certainly carried on with that project. Subsequently, Fabio Panetta on the Board and then Piero Cipollone, who has replaced Fabio, have taken the lead together with a very good team, which is focused on accelerating the pace and hopefully campaigning enough with all the stakeholders – meaning the European Parliament, European Council, European Commission – so that we can eventually, not put to bed, but put to reality this digital euro. The deadline for us is going to be October 2025 and we are getting ready for that deadline.”
It did not take long for social media to be flooded with headlines proclaiming that the Digital Euro, the ECB’s CBDC, will be introduced in October 2025.
