Overview
- The ECB on July 14 announced it had chosen 36 payment service providers to join a 12‑month pilot that will run in a controlled beta environment starting in the second half of 2027.
- The pilot will include employees of the ECB and 19 national central banks plus selected merchants who will try person‑to‑person, person‑to‑business, online and offline payments to judge real‑world usability.
- Spain will have two participant groups in the trial: a consortium of Abanca, Ibercaja, Unicaja, Cecabank, Bizum and Deloitte, and the fintech Sipay through its regulated unit Uinku Payments acting as an acquirer for merchants.
- Big incumbents and fast‑growing digital banks such as Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Revolut are among the 36 selected firms, and the beta will be technically representative but will not be legal tender or usable outside tests.
- The ECB frames the project as a way to strengthen Europe’s payments sovereignty by creating central‑bank money for digital use and will only move to actual issuance if EU legislation is approved, with a target readiness around 2029.