Mario Draghi, pre­si­dent of the Euro­pean Cen­tral Bank (ECB), has indi­ca­ted that his insti­tu­ti­on does not have the aut­ho­ri­ty to regu­la­te cryp­to­cur­ren­ci­es. Making his state­ments to the Euro­pean Parliament’s Com­mit­tee on Eco­no­mic and Mone­ta­ry Affairs, Draghi said that “it would actual­ly not be in our powers to pro­hi­bit and regu­la­te” bit­coin and other digi­tal cur­ren­ci­es.

Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament

Introductory statement by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, at the ECON committee of the European Parliament, Brussels, 25 September 2017

A year ago, we were dis­cus­sing toge­ther the mode­ra­te pace of the reco­very in the euro area. We were witnessing a slight loss of momen­tum and asses­sing the impact of the UK refe­ren­dum. Over the past 12 mon­ths, howe­ver, the reco­very has acce­le­ra­ted and broa­den­ed, sup­por­ted by the pass-through of our mone­ta­ry poli­cy.

In my remarks today I will dis­cuss the cur­rent eco­no­mic out­look and the impact of our mone­ta­ry poli­cy mea­su­res. At the request of the com­mit­tee, I will focus in par­ti­cu­lar on two topics rela­ted to the ECB’s mone­ta­ry poli­cy, name­ly the cor­po­ra­te sec­tor purcha­se pro­gram­me (CSPP) and mone­ta­ry poli­cy imple­men­ta­ti­on across the euro area.

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