The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched an initiative for creating the digital euro currency. It is a response to the rapid changes taking place in the financial market and the expectations of market participants, especially the growing number of cashless transactions. Digital euro is to be issued by the Eurosystem, i.e. the monetary authority of the euro area. The Eurosystem comprises the ECB and the national central banks in the euro area.
Digital euro will be an equivalent of banknotes, in the form of an electronic record, with the same status as cash. The digital equivalent is to expand the available methods of payment and payment services, and to prevent financial exclusion.
In April 2022, the ECB launched a call for expression of interest in joining an exercise to develop the prototype of digital euro. 5 providers were selected: Worldline, Nexi, EPI, CaixaBank, and Amazon.
CaixaBank is a Spanish provider of financial services, mainly loans. The task of CaixaBank will be to develop a prototype for peer-to-peer (P2P) online payments using digital euro in the form of a mobile application. Worldline is a leader in the payment terminal market that will create an offline P2P payment model. Nexi is an Italian bank engaged in the development of payment systems that will be working on in-store payments. The American tech giant Amazon will be responsible for the area of e-commerce payments. The EPI will be developing point of sale payments initiated by the payer.
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