Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 2 – point a: deleted

Added7. ‘payment service provider’ means a payment service provider as defined in Article 4, point (11) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 2 – point b: deleted

Added7 a. ‘designated entity’ means any payment service provider, as referred to in Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, entrusted by a Member State to provide digital euro payment account services as a service of general economic interest;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 2 – point c: deleted

Added8. 'digital euro payment service’ means any of the business activities set out in Annex I;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 3 – introductory part: 3. The European Central Bank shall, after consulting the European Systemic Risk Board, prepare a report on the impact of different theoretical holding limits on the financial stability of the euro area and its Member States. The European Central Bank shall submit the report to the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council within six months of having concluded the preparatory work for the issuance of the offline digital euro referred to in Article 4(2a). The report shall be accompanied by the methodology employed for the calculations and shall contain at least the following information:

Added9. ‘payer’ means a natural or legal person who has a digital euro payment account and places an online or offline digital euro payment transaction;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 3 – point a (new): (a) an assessment of the impact of different theoretical holding limits on the financial stability and on the competitiveness and resilience of credit institutions and non-financial corporations in the euro area, giving special attention to the impact on funding, liquidity, profitability and lending provision by credit institutions;

Added10. ‘payee’ means any natural or legal person who is the intended recipient of funds which have been the subject of a digital euro payment transaction;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 3 – point b (new): (b) any limitations in the methodology or the data used that shall limit their applicability, and specifically any correction factors needed to extrapolate the results on liquidity metrics when the data used include periods with extraordinary ample market liquidity and excess reserves.

Added11. ‘funding’ means the process, either manual or automatic, whereby a digital euro user acquires digital euros, in exchange for either cash or other funds, meaning a direct liability on the balance sheet of the European Central Bank or a national central bank towards that digital euro user;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 2 (new): When assessing the impacts referred to in the first subparagraph, point (a), the European Central Bank shall assume, for every theoretical holding limit, a full take-up of the theoretical holding limits in a normalised overall market liquidity situation as compared with a situation in which the digital euro is not issued. The impacts shall be evaluated at the aggregate level of the Union and national financial systems as well as at the level of individual credit institutions in order to assess residual financial instability risks stemming from euro area-wide, country-specific or institution-specific risks. Information on the most affected institutions, the Member States they operate in and their business model shall be provided at the highest level of granularity compatible with keeping confidentiality of supervisory data.

Added12. ‘defunding’ means the process, either manual or automatic, whereby a digital euro user exchanges digital euro with cash or other funds;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 4: 4. No later than three months after the reception of the report of the European Central Bank referred to in paragraph 3 and prior to the adoption of the delegated act referred to in paragraph 5, the Commission shall prepare a report with a detailed explanation of the risk tolerance to residual financial stability risk. The report shall, in particular, establish the percentage of total banking assets at euro area and at Member State level that may be subject to stressed financial conditions for potential theoretical holding limits in the scenario of full take up by digital euro users.

Added13. ‘national central bank’ means a national central bank of a Member State whose currency is the euro;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 4 – subparagraph 2 (new): The Commission shall present the report to the European Parliament and to the Council no later than three months before the adoption of the delegated act referred to paragraph 5.

Added▌

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 – introductory part: 5. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act to set up the initial holding limits. The delegated act shall be adopted no later than six months after receipt of the report of the European Central Bank referred to in paragraph 3. The initial holding limits shall comply with the following criteria in the scenario of full take up by digital euro users in normalised overall market liquidity situation:

Added16. ‘residing’ means being legally resident within the meaning of Article 2, point (2), of Directive 2014/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 – point a (new): (a) no individual credit institution in the euro area is expected to confront a retail sight deposits outflow greater than 5% compared to the situation without a digital euro;

Added17. ‘conditional digital euro payment transaction’ means a digital euro payment transaction which is instructed automatically upon fulfilment of pre-defined conditions agreed by the payer and by the payee, using the online digital euro payment functionality;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 – point b (new): (b) the total assets represented by credit institutions which will reach or fall below a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) of a 100% will be below 1% for the euro area as a whole and for each individual Member State in the euro area.

Added18. ‘programmable money’ means units of digital money with an intrinsic logic that limits each unit’s full fungibility;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1 a (new): If the holding limits were to be lower than the estimated average cash holdings of natural persons as a means of transactions, the Commission may decide to set initial holding limits equivalent to those average cash holdings.

Added19. ▌‘digital euro settlement infrastructure means the settlement infrastructure ▌adopted by the European Central Bank or the national central banks, or both, for the processing of digital euro payment transactions;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5a. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act revising the initial holding limits downwards, after consulting the European Central Bank and the European Systemic Risk Board, whenever it deems this to be appropriate.

Added20. ▌

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 5 b (new): 5b. The Commission shall propose a legislative amendment where it considers it appropriate to modify the criteria referred to in paragraph 5 to revise the initial holding limits upwards.

Added20a. ‘digital euro user interface’ means a digital interface through which digital euro users can access and use digital euro payment services provided by their respective payment service providers.

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 6: 6. The holding limits referred to in paragraph 5 shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across the euro area.

Added21. ▌

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 (new): Payment service providers providing account servicing payment services within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 to natural and legal persons referred to in Article 13(1) shall ensure those overall holding limits to online digital euro payment accounts and offline digital euro devices.

Added22. ‘visitor to the euro area’ means a natural person who does not have its domicile or residence in a Member State whose currency is the euro, and who is travelling to and staying in one of those Member States, including for tourism, business or education and training purposes;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 7: 7. Where a digital euro user uses both an offline and online digital euro, the holding limit that applies to online digital euro shall be equal to the overall holding limit determined in paragraph 5 minus the holding limit for offline digital euro set by digital euro users. A digital euro user may set its offline holding limit at any amount between zero and the holding limit set in accordance with Article 37.

Added23. ▌

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 7 a (new): 7a. Visitors and natural and legal persons referred to in Article 13(1), points (b), (d) and (e), shall be subject to holding limits as regards the use of the digital euro as a store of value that are not higher than those effectively implemented in the euro area for natural and legal persons residing or established in Member States whose currency is the euro. Those holding limits shall be applied in a non-discriminatory manner and uniformly across Member States whose currency is not the euro. When deciding on the holding limits and other limits, the Commission shall consult the European Central Bank and national central banks of Member States whose currency is not the euro.

Added24. ‘merchant service charge’ means a fee paid by the payee to a payment service provider when acquiring a digital euro payment transaction;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 7 b (new): 7b. Where an online digital euro user has multiple online digital euro payment accounts, the digital euro user shall specify to the payment service providers with which the digital euro payment accounts are held how the individual holding limit is to be allocated between the different digital euro payment accounts.

Added25. ‘comparable digital means of payment’ means digital means of payment, comprising both international and domestic consumer debit card schemes that can be used by consumers at points of sale and in e-commerce;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 7 c (new): 7c. Where an online digital euro payment account is held by more than one digital euro user, any holding limit on the related digital euro payment account adopted pursuant to paragraph 5 shall amount to the sum of the individual holding limits allocated to its users.

Added26. ‘switching’ means, upon a digital euro user’s request, transferring from one payment service provider to another either the information about all or some digital euro payment services,▌ executed on a digital euro payment account using the online digital euro payment functionality, including recurring payments, or the digital euro holdings from one digital euro payment account to the other, or both, with or without closing the former ▌account, while maintaining the same account identifier;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 7 d (new): 7d. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts, at the request of the European Central Bank, proposing additional limits to the use of the digital euro for the purpose of safeguarding financial stability and the stable funding of credit institutions and their lending capacity to the economy, while ensuring the usability and acceptance of the digital euro as a legal tender instrument and respecting the principle of proportionality.

Added27. ‘user identifier’ means a unique identifier generated by a payment service provider distributing the digital euro that unambiguously identifies, for online digital euro purposes, digital euro users but that is not attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the European Central Bank and the national central banks;

RemovedArticle 16 – paragraph 8: 8. The digital euro shall not bear interest.

Added28. ‘user alias’ means a unique pseudonymous identifier and, upon the request of a digital euro user, additional proxies, used to protect the user’s identity when processing digital euro payment transactions, that can only be attributable to an identifiable natural or legal person by the payment service provider distributing the digital euro or by the digital euro user;

RemovedArticle 17 – title: Fees and charges for the provision of digital euro payment services

Added29. ‘user authentication’ means authentication as defined in Article 4, point (29), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, being a unique piece of information created by the payment service provider distributing the digital euro that together with the user identifier allows a digital euro user to prove ownership of the online digital euro holdings recorded in the digital euro settlement infrastructure;

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 1: 1. For the purpose of Article 15(2), without prejudice to any possible fees charged on other digital euro payment services, payment services providers shall not charge fees to natural persons as referred to in Article 13(1), points (a), (b) and (c), for the provision of the basic digital euro payment services referred to in Annexes II and IIa.

Added30. ‘providers of support services’ means one or more entities, appointed by the European Central Bank, that provide services to all payment service providers distributing the digital euro that are aimed at facilitating the smooth functioning of digital euro payment transactions;

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 (new): To prevent the use of natural persons’ digital euro payment accounts for business purposes from being covered under the basic digital euro payment services in Annexes II and IIa, payment services providers shall be allowed to establish a proportionate limit on the number of received and issued payment transactions that are free-of-charge, and they shall be allowed to charge the exceeding ones according to paragraph 2 of this Article.

Added31. ‘mobile device’ means a device that enables digital euro users to authorise digital euro payment transactions online or offline including in particular smart phones, tablets, smartcards, smart watches and wearables of all kind;

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. For the purpose of Article 15(2), any merchant service charge or inter-payment service provider fee in relation to online digital euro payment transactions shall comply with the principle of proportionality. Any inter-payment service provider fee or merchant service charge levied by a payment service provider on a payment service provider or merchant in respect to online digital euro payment services shall not be higher than the inter-payment service provider fee or merchant service charge levied by that payment service provider on that specific payment service provider or merchant for comparable means of payment.

Added31 a. ‘unmanned point of sale’ means a physical device or system via which goods or services are provided directly to the payer by or on behalf of the payee in return for payment, without the presence of any staff or agents of the payee, including vending machines, ticketing machines, parking meters, self-service fuel and charging stations, and other similar systems.

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 2 – point a: deleted

AddedThe digital euro is hereby established as the digital form of the single currency.

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 2 – point b: deleted

AddedThe European Central Bank shall take all necessary measures to avoid any potential conflict of interest between its monetary, supervisory and payment systems oversight tasks, in accordance with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and its activities in relation to the management of the digital euro.

RemovedArticle 17 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1a (new): For the purpose of Article 15(2), any merchant service charge in relation to offline digital euro payment transactions shall comply with the principle of proportionality. Merchant service charges levied by a payment service provider on a merchant in respect of offline digital euro payment services shall not be higher than merchant service charges levied by that payment service provider on that merchant, with regard to comparable means of payment.

Added1. In accordance with the Treaties, the European Central Bank shall have the exclusive right to authorise the issue of the digital euro, and the European Central Bank and the national central banks may issue it as a form of central bank digital currency for retail use.