ECB signs agreements with European standard setters for digital euro payments

The European Central Bank (ECB) has signed agreements with three European standard-setting organizations—ECPC, nexo standards, and the Berlin Group—to reuse existing open technical standards for processing digital euro online payments.

The standards include:

• CPACE standards, developed by ECPC, support contactless “tap‑to‑pay” payments using near-field communication.
• nexo standards specifications connect merchants’ systems with the back-end systems of payment service providers and acquirers, supporting payment acceptance and cash-machine transactions.
• Berlin Group standards enable payments using an alias (such as a mobile phone number), support balance checks, reconciliation across mobile devices, and digital euro transactions initiated via merchant apps on smartphones.

By leveraging these open standards, the ECB aims to minimize adoption costs, encourage early coordination among stakeholders, and promote a uniform user experience across the euro area. This approach will facilitate the expansion of European payment schemes beyond national borders without requiring technical upgrades to point-of-sale terminals.

The adoption of the digital euro regulation by co-legislators will provide legal certainty and support market actors’ investments. Once adopted, the regulation will ensure standards apply across the euro area, enabling providers to scale operations internationally and reducing Europe’s current dependency on proprietary standards owned by international card schemes and global digital wallets.

ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone emphasized that the open standards will support market entry, investment, and innovation, providing a European alternative to proprietary solutions. Representatives from ECPC, nexo standards, and the Berlin Group expressed their support, highlighting the importance of open standards for a competitive and interoperable European payments market.

The selected standards align with the Eurosystem payments strategy, with additional standards potentially to be adopted in the future, subject to ECB approval. The signing ceremony images are available, and media inquiries can be directed to Georgina Garriga Sánchez at +49 69 1344 95368.

Payment standards are essential for ensuring seamless communication between payment service providers and infrastructures, reducing complexity, lowering costs, and supporting innovation and market integration.

About ECPC: Founded in 2020 by six European firms, ECPC develops and promotes the CPACE standard for contactless payments, which is widely adopted in Europe.

About nexo standards: An international non-profit association based in Brussels, promoting global payment acceptance standards and interoperability.

About the Berlin Group: A key European standards organization supporting open, interoperable payment solutions.