Confrontations Over Seigniorage in the Euro AreaConcerns about the prospective evolution of seigniorage collected by central banks as a result of innovation in the field of money and payments are not new.They have resurfaced recently with the prospect of stablecoins gaining traction.This paper considers that commercial banks also collect a form of seigniorage.On the basis of back-of-the-envelope calculations, we show that, in the euro area, stablecoins could impact banks' seigniorage more negatively than that of the ECB.Furthermore, a digital euro could support the ECB's seigniorage far more than euro stablecoins could dent it, while protective regulation and banks' adaptation to the new context would allow them to limit the fall in their seigniorage caused by stablecoins and a digital euro.All in all, seigniorage would increase.
Christian Pfister (Sun,) studied this question.