The digital euro will make offline payments invisible to everyone except the two parties involved in the payment, while commercial banks that handle online transactions will still be able to see them, said Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB's Executive Board, in an interview published this week.

Banks keep the identities the Eurosystem cannot see

Asked whether the ECB would be able to track what each citizen does with the currency, Cipollone said offline payments will move directly from one person to another, with the record of the transaction available only to the payer and the payee.

Online, the Eurosystem "would not be able to identify the users making or receiving payments," he said. The ECB released the interview on Monday, August 11. It was conducted on August 10.

Commercial banks remain part of the compliance picture. To check for money laundering, for example, the banks involved in a transaction could still find out who the parties were, Cipollone said. Although the currency is designed to be private, it must still follow the same reporting rules as all other money, and the commercial banks that distribute it retain the same identity obligations as before.

"The digital euro guarantees the maximum level of privacy that current technology can offer," Cipollone said.

He pledged cash-like anonymity only for offline payments, and only within the limits set by the laws governing electronic money across the bloc. That distinction matters because the digital euro is being designed to fit inside the EU’s existing payments and compliance framework, rather than sit outside it.

Lawmakers and privacy advocates, as well as parts of the crypto community, have warned that state-issued digital currencies could expand financial surveillance. In the United States, President Donald Trump barred federal agencies in January 2025 from creating or promoting a central bank digital currency, citing concerns about privacy and national sovereignty. US lawmakers have also advocated the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would stop the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC.

A 12-month pilot starts in late 2027

Within the European Union, the European Parliament agreed on its negotiating position on the digital euro regulation in July, and the goal of the talks with member states is to reach a deal by the end of this year.

The ECB has chosen 36 payment providers to take part in a 12-month pilot that will begin in the second half of 2027. Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Revolut are among the selected providers. The ECB has repeatedly named 2029 as the target date for the first issuance, which remains pending approval of the legislation and completion of the technical work.

In a public lecture in Latvia, Cipollone said two-thirds of euro-area card transactions are controlled by non-European companies, and described this dependence as a strategic vulnerability that the digital euro could neutralize.

EU member states have clashed over costs, banking-sector risks and design questions such as user holding limits, Cryptopolitan reported last year. Those debates are central to the project’s timeline because the legislation, technical buildout and operating rules still have to be settled before any launch can move ahead. The ECB's simulations show that generous limits could move as much as 700 billion euros out of bank deposits and into digital wallets.