Europe’s leading digital payments network NEXI is working with the European Central Bank (ECB) to contribute to developing the region’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). NEXI CEO, Paolo Bertoluzzo, made the remarks Thursday while speaking to CNBC’s Karen TSO on Money 20/20 program. Bertoluzzo added that a CBDC could be a force in the evolution of digital payments.
The announcement comes roughly three months after the ECB said it was advancing its digital Euro design plans into a two-year-long investigative phase. The ECB defines the digital Euro as an electronic form of money issued by the Eurosystem, constituting the ECB and the national central banks of the region’s 19 member states.
Some of its member states have made plans to develop their own CBDCs, including France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Spain, while others such as Germany, Italy have declared their support for ECB’s digital euro initiative.
According to the ECB, the digital Euro would not replace cash but provide all citizens in its member states with an alternative, safe and regulated way of using the Euro. NEXI is the biggest Italian pay-tech company founded in 2018. It provides merchant payments solutions, credit cards and digital payments, and digital banking services.
NEXI has a powerful presence in Italy with a market share of 70 percent in the merchant business estimated at 890,000 merchants countrywide. Nexi’s partners in the banking sector cover 80 percent of Italy’s banking system, and the platform has processed transactions worth over 259 billion Euros.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
