Proponents of the European Central Bank’s digital euro project are probably looking somewhat jealously at a similar initiative in China, which seems to be nearing the commercial roll-out phase.Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported over the weekend that mBridge, the Beijing-led platform spearheading the project, is at an advanced stage in the development of a digital currency. That currency will be backed by the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The FT’s sources said the project will halve the fees that businesses have to pay for international payments through other systems. Similar to the digital euro, one of the goals of the scheme is to reduce China’s reliance on the US dollar in payment settlements. However, unlike the digital euro – about which Europe has been talking since 2021 – progress on the mBridge project has been relatively swift. Even ECB president Christine Lagarde recently lamented the slow pace of progress on the initiative, which has stalled to some extent at the political level in recent months. Another factor in the holdup seems to be the intensive lobbying effort mounted against the digital euro by the biggest banks in Europe. In November, a group of 14 of the top lenders in the region warned that the project could potentially undermine their investment in something called Wero, a private European rival to the likes of Mastercard, Visa and PayPal. Critics have pointed out that the net effect of all this griping on the part of the private sector has been a watering down of the digital euro by the ECB and its co-legislators. For example, the finished product is likely to entail strict deposit limits of €3,000, which some argue will limit its attractiveness as a deposit alternative to private banks. From an Irish perspective, it will be interesting to see whether the conversation around the digital euro can come unstuck – as some hope it will – when Ireland takes over the EU presidency next month.