Overview
EU central bank digital currency initiative led by european-central-bank. Moving from technical PSP pilots to merchant checkout integration.
Timeline
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2026-10: riksbank cites approaching digital euro launch (~2029) as reason to revisit Swedish e-krona legal prep (2026-10-26-riksbank-reignites-e-krona-debate)
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2026-03: PSP call for interest opened; closed May 14
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2026-06: PSP partners selected
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2026-09-28: New innovation workstreams call — experimentation (receipts, conditional payments) and exploration (AI agents in payments, M2M); apps close Nov 9 2026; experimentation Jan–Jun 2027 (2026-09-29-ecb-digital-euro-innovation-workstreams)
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2026-09-15: E/m-commerce merchant call opened; deadline Oct 27
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H2 2027: 12-month pilot with beta digital euro (non-legal tender)
Key Players
- european-central-bank
- Acquiring pilot PSPs
- Euro-area e-commerce merchants
Analysis
First merchant-facing checkout pilot is critical path-to-production milestone. DEAN/alias payment flows and acquiring PSP APIs will shape EU payment rail evolution. Contrast with US cbdc moratorium.