The European Central Bank has signed agreements with three European standard-setting bodies to reuse existing open payment standards for the digital euro.
The move is aimed at lowering integration costs for banks, merchants, payment service providers and payment schemes across the euro area.
The agreements cover the European Card Payment Cooperation, nexo standards and the Berlin Group. The ECB said the standards will support digital euro online payments, contactless payments, merchant connections and alias-based transactions, including payments linked to a mobile phone number.
At the same time, the move comes as the ECB continues technical work on the digital euro before any final launch decision. The central bank said the standards will help payment firms prepare early, reduce market costs and support a uniform digital euro user experience across the euro area.
ECB backs open standards
The ECB said on Friday that it will reuse existing open technical standards that are already available to market participants. The central bank said this approach would reduce the need for firms to build new systems from scratch.
The agreements include CPACE standards developed by the European Card Payment Cooperation. These standards support contactless tap-to-pay transactions through near-field communication between a payment device and a payment terminal.
The ECB also signed an agreement with nexo standards. These specifications connect merchant systems with the back-end systems of payment service providers and acquirers. They can support payment acceptance and cash-machine transactions.
The Berlin Group standards will cover payments made through aliases, such as mobile phone numbers. They also support balance checks, reconciliation across mobile devices and digital euro payments started inside merchant apps.
ECB says deals can lower market costs
The ECB said the agreements will help minimize adoption costs for the market. It also said early coordination between payment service providers, merchants and standards bodies would make the digital euro easier to integrate.
The central bank said Europe does not currently have a universally available open standard supported across payment terminals. It added that the region still depends heavily on proprietary standards owned by international card schemes and global digital wallets.
By using existing European standards, the ECB aims to make digital euro acceptance simpler for merchants and payment firms. It also said the standards could allow European payment schemes to expand beyond national markets without requiring technical upgrades at point-of-sale terminals.
For example, a national card scheme could use the standards to expand into point-of-sale environments outside its home market. The ECB said this would support wider access while reducing the cost of technical changes for merchants and payment providers.
However, the agreements do not mean the digital euro will be cheap to implement. An earlier ECB analysis reported by Reuters estimated that the digital euro could cost European Union banks between 4 billion euros and 6 billion euros over four years.
Cipollone says standards offer a free European option
ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the agreements show the central bank wants the digital euro to work with existing European standards. He chairs the High-Level Task Force on a digital euro.
“This partnership shows our strong commitment to making sure the digital euro works with existing European standards that the private sector can also use,” Cipollone said.
He added that open digital euro standards would provide “a European free alternative to current proprietary standards.” He said this could make it easier for new European providers to enter the market.
Cipollone also said the standards would give payment service providers and merchants more certainty to invest, innovate and compete across the euro area. His comments point to the ECB’s wider goal of reducing Europe’s reliance on global payment networks.
The standards bodies also welcomed the agreements. ECPC CEO Ana Grade said the use of CPACE in the digital euro project would increase the standard’s visibility and market presence.
Jean-Philippe Joliveau, chairman of nexo standards, said the cooperation confirms nexo standards’ role in payment acceptance. Markus Schierack, managing director of SRC, said open standards are the base of a competitive European payments market.
Digital euro work continues before regulation
The ECB said the full benefits of the standards will depend on the adoption of the digital euro regulation by European Union lawmakers. The regulation would give the market more certainty because the digital euro would have legal tender status across the euro area.
Once the regulation is adopted, European payment solution providers could scale their services beyond national borders. The ECB said this could reduce current dependencies in Europe’s payment system and support wider use of European payment tools.
The central bank has been working on the digital euro’s technical framework while the European Union reviews the legal basis for the project. On March 25, Cipollone told EU lawmakers that the ECB expected to announce key technical standards by summer.
He said the rulebook would help banks, payment firms and merchants prepare payment terminals, apps and related tools. The ECB wants market actors to understand the technical needs before any possible launch.
The ECB is also preparing a 12-month digital euro pilot expected to begin in the second half of 2027. The pilot will include a limited number of payment service providers, merchants and Eurosystem staff.
Payment service providers are expected to play a central role in digital euro distribution. The pilot will test parts of the payment system before any wider rollout decision.
The Council of the European Union has also backed giving the digital euro both online and offline functions, as Coin Headlines reported in December. That approach would allow users to make payments in more settings, including areas with limited internet access.
In October last year, the ECB signed framework agreements with seven technology providers for parts of a possible digital euro system. Those agreements did not involve payments at that stage, but they formed part of the preparation work.