The digital euro moved a step closer on 8 April 2026, as the Banca centrale europea signed agreements with three European standards bodies to reuse open technical rules for online payments.
Summary
Open standards at the centre of the plan
The agreements involve ECPC, nexo standards and the Berlin Group. Together, they aim to support a common framework for euro-denominated digital payments across the bloc.
Moreover, the standards cover different use cases. ECPC – CPACE supports contactless tap-to-pay through near-field communication between a payment device and a terminal, while nexo standards connects merchant systems with the back-end of payment service providers and acquirers.
The Berlin Group enables payments through an alias, such as a mobile phone number, and supports balance checks and reconciliation between mobile devices. It also supports merchant payment acceptance in scenarios such as euro digital transactions initiated in a merchant app on a smartphone.
Why the ECB is reusing existing rules
By relying on open payment standards, the ECB wants to lower adoption costs and encourage early coordination among payment service providers and standards bodies. That said, the aim is also to make integration smoother for the market.
At present, Europe does not have a universally available open standard supported consistently by terminals. Instead, it relies largely on proprietary rules from international card schemes and major digital wallets.
Using widely adopted European standards should simplify acceptance of the euro digital and create a uniform user experience across the euro area. Moreover, it should help European operators expand geographic coverage and diversify use cases without forcing terminal updates.
Regulatory clarity could boost adoption
For example, a national card scheme could extend its activity into POS environments outside its home market without requiring technical changes to terminals. The ECB said the benefits of the standards should become available before issuance.
Once EU co-legislators adopt the digital euro regulation, the standards would apply across the euro area thanks to the legal tender status of the currency. In that context, the digital euro could give European payment providers more certainty on future investment and reduce the region’s current dependencies in payments.
In short, the ECB is building a practical base for the currency before launch. If lawmakers deliver the new framework, European providers may gain more room to scale across borders with fewer technical barriers.
