The European Central Bank (ECB) has entered into agreements with three European standard-setting organisations to support the processing of digital euro online payments.
The central bank of the European Union (EU) countries said it will work with the European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC), nexo standards and the Berlin Group, with a focus on reusing existing open technical standards that are available to all stakeholders.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
The initiative forms part of ECB’s preparations for a potential issuance of the digital euro by 2029, provided EU co-legislators adopt the necessary regulation by 2026. Preparatory work, including pilot exercises and initial transactions, could start as early as mid-next year.
CPACE standards, developed by ECPC, are intended to support contactless “tap-to-pay” transactions. They use near-field communication between a payment device and a payment terminal.
nexo standards specifications are used to connect merchants’ systems with the back-end systems of payment service providers and acquirers. The specifications are used across payment acceptance and cash-machine transactions.
Berlin Group standards support payments that use an alias, such as a mobile phone number. They also cover services including balance checks and reconciliation across mobile devices, and can support use cases such as digital euro payments initiated in merchant apps on smartphones.
The approach is designed to reduce adoption costs and improve coordination among market participants. It is also intended to help payment service providers and standardisation bodies align early on technical implementation.
ECB said the use of widely adopted European standards is expected to support digital euro acceptance and “create a uniform user experience across the euro area”. It may also support European payment schemes to extend geographical reach and expand use cases, it added.
ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, who chairs the High-Level Task Force on a digital euro, said: “This partnership shows our strong commitment to making sure the digital euro works with existing European standards that the private sector can also use.
“The open digital euro standards will provide a European free alternative to current proprietary standards, make it easier for new European providers to enter the market and give European payment service providers and merchants the certainty they need to invest, innovate and compete across the euro area.”
The standards were selected with input from market participants represented in the Rulebook Development Group. Additional standards could be added in the future, subject to approval by the ECB’s Governing Council.
