FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) -Italian banks support the European Central Bank’s digital euro project but want investments required by them to implement it to be staggered over time because the costs are high, a top official of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said.

The ECB has been working on a digital version of the single currency to strengthen the euro area’s monetary sovereignty, but the legislative process has been slow as some French and German banks in particular have opposed the project. They say it could see millions of Europeans use an online ECB wallet for daily payments, draining away their bank deposits.

“We’re in favour of the digital euro because it embodies a concept of digital sovereignty,” ABI General Manager Marco Elio Rottigni told a press seminar in Florence on Fri

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