SJD candidate Mark Warren considers one aspect of the potential design of a future central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the Eurozone in his article published in the University of Bologna Law Review, titled "Let the Digital Euro Circulate: Introducing a Retail C.B.D.C. in the Eurozone With Unlimited Holdings by Users".
Central banks around the world are currently examining the possibility of issuing their own CBDC as a digital equivalent of physical banknotes and coins. This includes the European Central Bank, which is assessing the viability and potential design of its "digital euro". There is an expectation that individuals would be limited in how much digital euro that they can hold at any time: a "holding limit" of €3,000 per user has been mooted.
This paper argues that the principal concerns behind the holding limit - (i) compliance with regulations related to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and (ii) the disintermediation of banks as credit intermediaries - are unwarranted. In any case, the holding limit would not be an effective solution to these concerns. The digital euro could be introduced with unlimited holdings by individual users in conformity with EU law and while maintaining banks as credit intermediaries in the Eurozone financial system.
The paper is accessible here: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2531-6133/16907