Assist in testing the upcoming digital euro.
Each participating company will develop a prototype interface for processing simulated transactions.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has partnered with five companies to test its digital euro: Amazon, CaixaBank, Worldline, European Payments Initiative, and Nexi.
Digital Euro Testing
The ECB announced on September 15 that five companies will cooperate to develop prototype user interfaces for the anticipated digital euro. The exercise will employ simulated transactions to determine whether the digital euro effectively interacts with those interfaces.
Amazon will be the most prominent participant in developing an interface to process e-commerce payments. It is unclear whether the company would modify its official storefront or develop a whole new experience.
Today’s news does not indicate that Amazon has the intention of accepting the digital euro if the ECB ever introduces one.
Other companies collaborating in the project include the Spanish bank CaixaBank and the European payments processor Worldline. These companies will develop interfaces for both online and offline peer-to-peer payments.
Finally, the European Payments Initiative (EPI) and the paytech company Nexi will provide POS transaction interfaces. The EPI solution will focus on payer-initiated transactions, whereas Nexi's solution will focus on payee-initiated transactions.
These five companies were selected from a pool of 54 that responded to an initial request for expressions of interest.
Regardless of any company's high position, their efforts may have minimal long-term impact. The European Central Bank recently stated that there are no plans to reuse the prototypes in further phases of the digital euro project.
The experiment's results will be released in 2023. Furthermore, recent reports predicted that a legislative framework for the EU's digital euro will also be delivered in 2023. As per some estimates, a digital euro might be introduced around 2025.
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