One thing that the Bank can do is to help policy-makers and financial service providers have the best available research at their disposal. Indeed, in our most recent medium-term plan, the conduct and promotion of leading-edge research was identified as one of the Bank's strategic priorities. Of course, the Bank does a significant amount of research in-house.
The first risk is that being too ambitious could lead to a crowding out of private payment solutions and a potential disintermediation of the banking sector. The second is the risk of creating an unattractive product that would not be accepted by consumers and enterprises. In October 2021, the ECB launched what it refers to as the investigation phase of the project.