FILE PHOTO: Flags in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) before a news conference at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The European Central Bank hopes to have all the political decisions in place by early next year to issue a digital euro and would then need two to three years to launch the currency, ECB board member Piero Cipollone said on Thursday.
The ECB has been working on a digital version of the euro for years but progress has been slower than expected, mostly because legislation is still not in place to allow the bank to proceed.
