Cipollone lists monetary transmission as a payments objective
Victoria Shinder1 min readPiero Cipollone presented the ECB's approach to the digitalisation of money, payments and finance at Fondazione ResPublica on 23 September 2026: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//press/key/date/2026/html/ecb.sp260923~87850778f5.en.pdf.
The deck names three drivers: the digitalisation of payments, the emergence of technologies such as distributed ledger technology, and a heightened focus on reducing dependencies and strengthening resilience. Against those, it sets out four strategic aims - an integrated, future-oriented payments landscape; the effectiveness of monetary policy and financial stability; continuity and smooth operation of the payment system; and alignment of policies and initiatives under a single vision.
What it means
Putting dependency reduction beside technology adoption is the whole European argument in one slide. New rails are attractive for cost and speed; the reason a central bank lists them next to resilience is that European retail payments run heavily on infrastructure owned elsewhere. A strategy that only optimised cost would not mention dependencies at all.
"Effectiveness of monetary policy" appearing as a payments aim is the quiet claim. It says payment architecture is not neutral with respect to the transmission of rates - that who holds the balances, and in what instrument, affects how policy reaches the economy. That is the argument underneath every central bank digital currency discussion, stated here as an objective rather than as a project.
⚠️ A strategy deck is a statement of aims. No instrument, timeline or decision is reported here, and the aims are set out at the level of principle rather than of rule.