The ECB is Putting the Digital Euro to the Test with Amazon, CaixaBank, and Others

Amazon, CaixaBank, and Other Financial Institutions Will Help the European Central Bank Test the Digital Euro.

As the European Central Bank (ECB) continues its building and testing of the potential digital euro prototype, it has revealed the five external companies that it will collaborate with and work alongside to develop potential user interfaces for the new currency.

The European Central bank recently announced its intentions to work alongside five companies to develop and test the potential European Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), or, the ‘digital euro’.

CBDCs are government-backed digital currencies that can be used by both businesses and consumers. Simulated transactions will be processed using front-end prototypes developed by the firms and processed through the Eurosystem’s interface and back-end infrastructure.

From September until the end of 2022, online retail titan Amazon, Spanish financial institution CaixaBank, French payment service provider Worldline, payment-integration initiative European Payments Initiative (EPI) and the European paytech company Nexi will work alongside the ECB team.

These firms were chosen from a pool of 54 front-end providers who applied to become a part of the process. Their selection follows a call for interest by the ECB in April 2022 for joining the prototyping exercise. All 54 companies are said to fulfil a number of ‘essential capabilities’ that were outlined in the call and were best matched to the “specific capabilities” required for the various assigned use cases.

The prototyping exercise is an important element in the ongoing two-year investigation phase of the digital euro project. It is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023 when the ECB will also publish its findings. – More