European Central Bank
Acronym: ECB
Established: 1998
Address: Sonnemannstrasse 22, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The European Central Bank (ECB) is an institution of the European Union, which defines and implements the monetary policy for the euro area. The euro area now consists of 20 EU countries that have introduced the single currency since its launch in 1999.
The main task of the Bank is to maintain the euro’s purchasing power and price stability in the euro area.
The ECB also deals with issues related to e-money and virtual currency strategies, as they might affect the euro. For example, the Bank produces statistics on e-money issues by monetary financial institutions in the euro area, and has published a number of research papers on virtual currencies schemes.