The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced that it will work with five companies to develop potential digital user interfaces for the euro.
In an announcement on Friday, the ECB said it had selected “Big Four” tech company Amazon, fintech firm Nexi, Spanish digital bank CaixaBank, French payments platform Worldline and the European Payments Initiative (EPI) to target the Development of a prototype to focus on specific use cases of the digital euro. According to the central bank, the firms will create front-end prototypes that will not be used in later stages of the digital currency project.
Source: ECB
The ECB selected the five companies based on their fulfillment of “specific skills” compared to 50 other front-end developers who responded to the central bank’s call in April. Officials planned to complete the project in the first quarter of 2023 as part of a two-year investigation into the digital euro that is expected to end in October 2023.
Related: Digital euro could come as early as 2026 – ECB official
As interest in central bank digital currencies appears to be growing around the world, ECB officials have been studying the potential impact of a digital euro on Europe, but were unsure if or when the bank might issue a CBDC. The central bank commissioned a series of focus groups on digital payment methods in September 2021, which suggested that the use of digital currencies in online and physical stores could be a key feature of a digital euro. A previous public consultation also indicated that privacy is seen as “the most important feature of a digital euro” by both citizens and professionals.