The European Central Bank has launched a new phase of its digital euro innovation programme, inviting payment providers, fintechs, merchants, technology firms and public institutions to help shape the future of Europe’s digital currency ecosystem.
The initiative forms part of the Eurosystem’s ongoing preparations for the potential introduction of a digital euro and follows the first innovation platform programme launched in 2024.
The ECB said the new wave of collaboration aims to identify how digital euro infrastructure could support innovation while enabling private sector participants to develop new products and services.
Applications are open until 9 November 2026, with selected participants expected to be announced in January 2027.
The programme is open to organisations across the European Union, including payment service providers (PSPs), fintech companies, merchants, technical service providers, public bodies and research institutions.
The initiative will be divided into two workstreams: experimentation and exploration.
The experimentation stream focuses on developing practical solutions and value-added services that could improve payment experiences for consumers and businesses, while the exploration stream will examine emerging technologies and future innovations that could influence the evolution of the digital euro.
Among the key experimentation themes are electronic receipts, multi-payer and multi-payee transactions, conditional payments and advanced front-end payment features.
The ECB said these services could enhance user experiences while creating new commercial opportunities for European firms.
The electronic receipts workstream will explore how payment confirmations could be integrated directly into digital euro transactions, allowing users to receive and manage receipts through their payment applications.
Participants will assess standards, privacy considerations and technical implementation models before testing solutions through dedicated APIs.
Another focus area will examine multi-payer and multi-payee transactions, including use cases such as bill splitting, group purchases and payments distributed across multiple recipients.
The ECB believes such functionality could broaden the range of payment experiences supported by a future digital euro ecosystem.
The programme will also explore conditional payments, which automatically execute when predefined conditions are met. The ECB reiterated that such functionality should not be confused with programmable money, emphasising that a digital euro would not restrict where, when or how money could be used.
Alongside these initiatives, participants will be encouraged to test innovative front-end capabilities, including AI-powered payment features, behavioural biometrics, budgeting tools and accessibility enhancements designed to improve the overall user experience.
The exploration workstream will focus on longer-term developments, including the role of artificial intelligence in payments.
Areas under consideration include AI agents, machine-to-machine transactions, micropayments and AI-enabled payment experiences. The ECB said discussions will assess how these technologies could create new payment use cases while remaining aligned with principles such as privacy, trust and user control.
A separate workshop series will investigate how a digital euro could support public services and infrastructure. Potential applications include transport systems, utility payments, smart city services, electric vehicle charging and broader financial inclusion initiatives.
The ECB said the programme is designed to provide participants with early insight into the capabilities of a potential digital euro while helping policymakers understand future use cases and infrastructure requirements.
Findings from the workstreams may be published through reports and showcased at future ECB events.
The experimentation phase is expected to run from January to June 2027, with participants developing proofs of concept and prototypes using dedicated testing environments provided by the Eurosystem.
