Burkhard Balz, a German politician and executive board member of the country's central bank, said in a speech on Oct. 20 that it was crucial to build tools to restrict how the digital euro is used upon launch. Balz emphasized that people should only be able to use the central bank-backed digital euro as a mode of payment and not as a store of value. If the central bank digital currency has the same characteristics as traditional money, depositors could withdraw their funds in times of a crisis by converting it into digital euros, making the funds a liability for the central bank. “This might lead to the structural disintermediation of the banking sector and, as a consequence, could potentially dampen the provision of bank credit to the economy,” Balz warned.