The digital euro is one of the most significant projects driven by the Eurosystem to strengthen the monetary sovereignty and competitiveness of the euro area’s financial system, drive innovation in payments and offer a digital alternative to cash. Its main objective is to ensure that citizens and businesses can continue to access central bank money in an increasingly digitalised environment, responding to the new needs of the European economy.
At the current stage of the project, the Eurosystem plans to conduct ‘beta’ tests in a live environment to validate functionalities, operational processes and the user experience. During this phase, various use cases will be assessed, including peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, e-commerce payments and business-to-consumer (B2C) payments, as well as offline payment scenarios to analyse the solution’s performance in the absence of user connectivity. The pilot, which is expected to last approximately twelve months, is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027, with the participation of staff from Eurosystem central banks and merchants selected by them.
The Eurosystem has selected the consortium comprising Unicaja, ABANCA, Ibercaja, Cecabank, Bizum and Deloitte to take part in this development phase of the digital euro, an initiative set to transform the European payments ecosystem and lay the foundations for a new generation of digital financial services.
Participation in this initiative reflects the participating institutions’ and companies’ commitment to financial innovation and will enable them to contribute to the development of the digital euro and the future services associated with this new European infrastructure.
This selection recognises the strength of a partnership that brings together complementary capabilities across the entire payments value chain. The consortium comprises three financial institutions that are leaders in their respective markets and have a significant presence in the Spanish market — Unicaja, ABANCA and Ibercaja —; Cecabank, a European provider of financial infrastructure, wholesale payment services and specialised technology for the financial sector; Bizum, a national and international leader in digital payments and one of the most widely adopted instant payment initiatives in Europe; and Deloitte, a leading global firm in financial transformation.
Together, these organisations form a unique ecosystem to tackle the end-to-end development of the digital euro. ABANCA, Ibercaja and Unicaja will contribute their customer knowledge, distribution capabilities and expertise in providing financial services to millions of users. Bizum will bring its expertise in digital payments and its ability to drive simple, secure, reliable and widely adopted user experiences. Cecabank will provide the technological infrastructure and the capability to integrate with the Eurosystem’s digital euro platform, consolidating its position as a leading European provider and one-stop shop for payments within the financial sector. Deloitte will contribute its international perspective on the evolution of payment methods and the development of central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives.
The combination of these capabilities will enable the consortium to comprehensively address the various aspects of the pilot and contribute to the validation of the technical and operational aspects of the digital euro. In doing so, the participating institutions will strengthen their contribution to the development of a more competitive, efficient and sovereign payments infrastructure for Europe, whilst promoting innovative and secure solutions for citizens, businesses and retailers.
