The European Central Bank (ECB) has completed the initial two-year investigation phase of its digital euro project and will now implement a two-year preparation phase that will cover the finalisation of a digital euro rulebook, the selection of providers to develop a digital euro platform and infrastructure, as well as testing and experimentation across a range of use cases for the central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
A working group of 30 Spanish banks and payment services providers, including BBVA, Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, CaixaBank and Iberpay, have completed a proof of concept (PoC) trial for digital euro transactions and recommended that the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) is designed to leverage existing payments infrastructure... More
CWC SPEAKER RECAP: Contactless World Congress is a year-round online conference and expo that brings you presentations from industry experts on the subjects that matter to those in the global contactless business... More
“We believe that the digital euro is the natural and digital evolution of our currency,” Evelien Witlox, the programme director in charge of the European Central Bank’s digital euro project, reports in a presentation for NFCW’s Contactless World Congress online event series which is now available to view in the NFCW Knowledge Centre... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) should continue to develop the digital euro and start its proposed testing phase in October this year, but should not go ahead with launching the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) “unless new elements emerge strongly supporting such a decision”, according to an analysis paper requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON)... More
The digital euro should be distributed via apps, digital and physical cards and other form factors that enable consumers to make both NFC and QR code in-store payments with the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a European Central Bank (ECB) report... More
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is to begin piloting a digital wallet that will enable users to make instant person-to-person (P2P) payments in Germany and France as a first step towards rolling out a unified payment system that will support “a comprehensive range of transaction types” across Europe... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) has laid out plans for a staggered rollout of a digital euro that would begin with the bank initially releasing the central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use in person-to-person and ecommerce transactions... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering plans to develop a digital euro app that would enable consumers to use the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make contactless and QR code-based payments and “facilitate a standard approach to connecting end users to intermediaries” including banks and other payments processors... More
More than six in ten card payments made at the point of sale (POS) across European countries within the eurozone are now contactless (62%) compared with just over four in ten in 2019 (41%), a European Central Bank (ECB) survey reveals... More
The ECB has laid out a series of design and distribution options for a digital euro that describe how the Eurosystem and supervised intermediaries such as commercial banks would operate in order to issue, distribute and settle transactions made using the proposed central bank digital currency. More
The European Commission is planning to propose the legislation required for the introduction of the digital euro as a central bank digital currency issued by the European Central Bank (ECB) in 2023, EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness has confirmed... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) is to trial five prototype digital euro payment solutions to test how front-end user interfaces and back-end infrastructure can be integrated to enable users to make peer-to-peer, point-of-sale and ecommerce payments with the proposed central bank digital currency... More
The European Commission has launched a targeted consultation on the expected impact of a digital euro on key industries, institutions, consumers, merchants and other stakeholders in international trade... More
European consumers consider the ability to make instant contactless payments, including person-to-person transfers, to be a priority and “a very important selling point” for a digital euro, according to European Central Bank (ECB) research... More
The European Commission is to launch a consultation prior to proposing legislation that will lay out the legal framework for the ongoing development and potential issuance of a digital euro by the European Central Bank (ECB)... More
A “growing number” of Europeans would support the creation of national digital currencies with the specific aim of asserting “some monetary independence” from the European Union, according to a survey commissioned by Euronews... More
Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has tested a blockchain-powered technical solution for the use of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it says is capable of handling more than 300,000 simultaneous payments a second and enables payees to receive a payment in less than two seconds... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched its digital euro project with a two-year investigation into key issues regarding the design, distribution and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
More than two-fifths (43%) of Europeans rank privacy as the most important feature of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC), with 18% citing security, 11% the ability to pay across the eurozone, 9% the lack of additional costs and 8% offline usability, according to a European Central Bank (ECB) survey... More