Keynote speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the Economics of Payments XIII Conference organised by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Vienna, 27 September 2024

Money plays a fundamental role in society, driving economic activity and enabling daily transactions.^[1] Money in physical form, cash, remains the most frequently used means of payment in stores, especially for lower value transactions. But more and more people are using money in digital form. An average of 379 million retail transactions are made digitally in the euro area every day.^[2]

Given money’s importance for our material and social well-being, the regulation of money has long been considered a cornerstone of state sovereignty. As the influential French jurist and political philosopher Jean Bodin observed in the 16th century, “only he who has the power to make law can regulate the coinage.”^[3]

Today, legislators continue to regulate the use of money and they have entrusted central…