Central bank opts to reuse existing European standards as it looks to reduce dependence on proprietary payment infrastructure
The European Central Bank has signed agreements with three European standard-setting bodies as it seeks to reduce reliance on proprietary payment infrastructure in the development of the digital euro.
Announced on 24 April, the ECB will work with the European Card Payment Cooperation, nexo standards and the Berlin Group to reuse existing open technical standards for processing digital euro payments.
The decision centres on enabling digital euro transactions to run on established European specifications rather than requiring new, bespoke systems.
“This partnership shows our strong commitment to making sure the digital euro works with existing European standards that the private sector can also use,” said Piero Cipollone, who chairs the central bank’s High-Level Task Force on a digital euro.
“The open digital euro standards will provide a European free alternative to current proprietary standards, make it easier for new European providers to enter the market and give European payment service providers and merchants the certainty they need to invest, innovate and compete across the euro area.”
Reusing existing infrastructure
The standards selected cover multiple stages of the payments process. CPACE, developed by ECPC, supports contactless ‘tap-to-pay’ transactions using near-field communication. Nexo standards connect merchant systems with payment service providers and acquirers, while the Berlin Group’s specifications enable payments using aliases such as mobile phone numbers, alongside balance checks and reconciliation functions.
By relying on these frameworks, the ECB is aiming to minimise integration costs and avoid the need for significant upgrades to existing payment terminals.
The central bank said that leveraging open standards would “minimise adoption costs for the market and encourage early coordination among all involved players”.
Addressing fragmentation in European payments
The ECB noted that Europe currently lacks “a universally available open standard supported across payment terminals” and remains dependent on proprietary standards owned by international card schemes and global digital wallets.
Using existing European standards is intended to simplify acceptance across the euro area and support interoperability between national payment solutions. The ECB also stated that this approach could allow domestic schemes to expand into other markets without requiring technical upgrades to point-of-sale infrastructure.
The benefits of the approach are linked to the progress of the digital euro regulation. According to the ECB, the full impact of the standards will depend on EU co-legislators adopting the regulation, which would provide legal certainty and confirm the framework’s application across the euro area.
The central bank said that regulatory clarity would enable payment providers to scale services beyond national borders and support future investment decisions.
Industry collaboration formalised
The agreements also formalise the role of existing standards bodies in the digital euro project.
Jean-Philippe Joliveau, Chairman of nexo standards, said the collaboration “confirms the position of nexo standards as an international and collaborative standardisation body for payment acceptance, supporting interoperability across the payments ecosystem”.
Markus Schierack, Managing Director of SRC, representing the Berlin Group, added that “open standards are the foundation of a competitive and interoperable European payments market”.
