THAT’digital euro promises to revolutionize the lives of European citizens, overcoming Iban, the number used to identify current accounts, thanks to a new unique identifier, Dean, short for Digital Euro Account Number, which will rewrite the rules of direct debit payments.
He explained this during a seminar at the University of Florence Marco Pieronihead of Bank Italy’s Digital Euro Unit. Pieroni also highlighted the functional aspect of offline payments, perhaps the most contentious aspect of the entire project that has been the focus of doubts by the private payments sector. “The level of privacy of offline transactions,” says Pieroni, “will be the same as cash transactions, and only the seller and the buyer will know the details. In addition, this feature will add an element of resilience to European payment systems and ensure that citizens can deal with events, such as the power outages that hit Spain at the end of April.”
The digital euro goes beyond IBAN
Chiara Scotti, deputy general director of the Bank of Italy, also focused on simplifying the digital euro thanks to the introduction of Dean. “The change of IBAN”, he recalled, implied the need to “change the domicile of all payments that pass through our accounts, such as bills or subscriptions to streaming platforms. With the digital euro”, added Scotti, “it will become a memory, because its identifier, the Digital Euro Account Number or Dean, will be disconnected from the country or intermediary we use. So with each change of intermediary or country of residence, our identifier for using the digital euro will remain the same, just as our telephone number remains the same today when we switch to another operator”.
If on the one hand there is simplification regarding the digital euro, on the other hand, without realizing it, there is a tug-of-war with mobile phone manufacturers, and especially with Apple. Frankfurt intends to force the Cupertino company to completely “unlock” its iPhones, so that people can store digital euros in the “safe” section of their phones. Otherwise, under the rules of the Digital Markets Act, Brussels could hinder sales of such devices in Europe.
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This was explained, as Messaggero has revealed, by ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone and Alessandro Giovannini, advisor to the digital euro project, speaking to Centralbanking magazine. For now, Apple has committed to only allowing payment solutions based on HCE, i.e. solutions that allow banks to develop their own applications, but do not store card details on the device, which is fundamental for a digital euro offline solution. For Cipollone, this isn’t enough to guarantee a user experience comparable to Apple Pay in terms of authentication and speed. Giovannini explained that Apple’s status is “gatekeeper”, meaning it is subject to specific obligations to encourage competition, ensure interoperability, and prevent unfair practices, which allows the European Commission to ensure that the ECB can access secure elements of the iPhone.
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