A recent YouGuv survey commissioned by the BearingPoint consultancy has several novel findings about the digital euro. One of the most notable is there appears to be more appetite for the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in countries that are currently heavy users of cash.
On the one hand, that could imply that the release of the digital euro could accelerate the move to cash. However, online shopping was the most popular use case (36%), perhaps indicating that cash users want to have a digital version. In-store shopping came second (28%).
That’s not to say the concept of a CBDC is massively popular. One in three people said they would be willing to use the digital euro, although many don’t plan to use it often. Only one in four respondents in non euro countries (Sweden and Denmark) would use a CBDC. Thirty six percent of Europeans do not wish to use a CBDC, and the remainder don’t know what it is. Awareness was higher in the eurozone compared to non euro countries, but then the ECB has been promoting it.
Privacy is an important topic when discussing a CBDC. Just 5% of people trust BigTech firms to hold their personal data relating to a digital euro. Commercial banks are the most trusted (42%).
Israel’s central bank found privacy to be a relatively low priority in its recent CBDC survey (it still plans to use a private CBDC design). In Europe privacy ranks far higher, because 32% of people said they don’t trust any firms to hold their personal data. Central banks came next, trusted by 13% of people, a gap of almost 30% compared to commercial banks. For the three non-eurozone countries surveyed (Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland) the trust gap between commercial and central banks was narrower (13%).
The favorite digital euro features are the free usage (43%) and acceptance everywhere (37%). While usability didn’t rank as important in the survey, if central banks roll out something that’s not user-friendly, the chances of traction must be slim.
Cash is king? Still
Despite evidence of the ongoing declining use of cash, the survey highlighted its continued importance. We expected to see close to zero usage in the Scandinavian countries, Finland and the Netherlands, but that’s not the case.
Of the economies surveyed, Sweden is the most digital. Yet three quarters of Swedish survey respondents said they use cash at least two or three times in a two week period.
Hat tip to the Digital Euro Association for highlighting the report
