That is not only a reference to the fact that football World Cups are no longer being played in the wonderful summertime, but in the winter months. Changes can be observed in the world of payments as well. Driven by digitalisation, new payment methods are emerging and, with them, new providers of innovative payment services.
These developments are also impacting on central banks' roles as backbone of payment systems, prompting us to find new answers to new challenges. One answer could be to make our currency, the euro, ready for the digital world of tomorrow. These discussions are centred around the concept of central bank digital currency, or CBDC for short.