ECB Seeks Merchants for Year-Long Digital Euro Pilot

Overview

• The ECB has invited e-commerce and mobile-commerce merchants across the euro area to join a 12-month pilot that will run in the second half of 2027 and exercise online, in-store, mobile and peer-to-peer payments.
• The test will use a beta token that resembles the planned digital euro but will not be legal tender and will involve the ECB plus 19 national central banks acting as test users.
• A pre-selected consortium of 36 banks and payment firms, including Deutsche Bank, Revolut and BNP Paribas, will support back-end testing and integration with payment service providers.
• Officials and industry experts say the pilot’s success will hinge on broad merchant uptake, which may require commercial incentives such as lower transaction fees to make acceptance viable.
• The pilot is meant to produce technical and operational evidence to inform lawmakers and the ECB Governing Council, and any operational issuance will remain conditional on EU legislation.