@paulbuitink 1-Since the ECB has singularly failed to provide financial stability to the eurozone, but instead was responsible for record credit boom-busts in Ireland, Portugal, Spain etc. followed by vast unemployment and sovereign debt crises, why should the ECB be given any FURTHER powers?

2-Nobody needs CBDC. There is no demand for it. Please provide actual evidence that there is popular demand for it. (NB Demand for bitcoin is no such proof; demand for cash is no such proof, especially since CBDC is designed to abolish cash for negative rate/expropriation policy)

3-Conflict of interest. ECB is banking regulator in the eurozone. Now it is seriously contemplating compromising its umpire role as regulator by stepping into the arena and wanting to directly compete against the banks, which are regulated by the ECB (CBDC=current accounts)...

3b Isn't this anti-competitive; unfair competition? Throws new light on the ECB's past 20 years of policies, which have been aggressively anti-(small)-bank. As the ECB now admits it wants to compete with the banks, have its policies of killing so far 4,800 banks been intentional?

4-ECB claims that CBDC may increase financial stability, but it has been the ECB's disastrous policies that have caused dramatic financial instability over the entire period of the ECB's existence. Why should anyone believe the ECB's claim to aim at financial stability?...