On Friday 24 April, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it had signed agreements with three European standard-setting organisations – the European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC), nexo standards and the Berlin Group – with the aim of re-using existing technical standards for processing online payments in digital euros.
The Frankfurt institution’s aim is to facilitate the digital euro’s arrival by leveraging existing payment tools rather than creating new infrastructures, and to ensure that using the future digital euro is simple for merchants and consumers alike.
The ECPC’s Contactless Payment Application Common Environment (CPACE) standards support contactless payments, which are executed by simply bringing a device into close contact with a terminal.
Nexo standards connect merchants’ systems with those of payment service providers, particularly for payment acceptance and cash-machine transactions.
The Berlin Group’s standards enable payments using simple identifiers, such as a telephone number, and facilitate mobile-based transactions, such as checking account balances or making payments in merchant apps.
Through these partnership agreements, the ECB aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on standards dominated by international players.
“This partnership shows our strong commitment to making sure the digital euro works with existing European standards that the private sector can also use”, said ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone on Friday. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)