ECB opens a second wave of digital euro innovation work and invites merchants to apply

The ECB called for expressions of interest in a new wave of digital euro innovation platform activities, split into two workstreams. Experimentation runs from January to June 2027 and asks participants to build and test concrete features - electronic integrated receipts, multi-payer and multi-payee transactions, conditional payments and app features - and to submit a proof of concept and an outcome report.

Exploration runs as on-site workshops at the ECB in Frankfurt in the first and second quarters of 2027, on the application of artificial intelligence and agentic payment transactions and on digital euro use in public services. Participation is open to merchants, payment service providers, technical service providers, fintechs, consumer associations, public institutions and research institutes, joint applications are encouraged, and submissions close at 17:00 CET on Monday 9 November 2026.

This is the second consecutive September step that puts the acceptance side of the digital euro into the hands of the firms that would have to build it: the Eurosystem opened the pilot to euro-area e-commerce merchants on 15 September 2026, and this call now asks merchants and PSPs to specify the checkout features themselves. The named experimentation topics are acceptance topics, not settlement ones - an integrated electronic receipt and a conditional payment are things a till and a gateway have to support - so whoever takes part shapes the integration work every acquirer and PSP in the euro area will later inherit.

The 9 November deadline is the practical consequence: a firm that wants a say in the feature set has six weeks to put an application in.

How many merchants and PSPs apply by 9 November, whether any of the tracked European acquirers are named among the participants, and whether the experimentation outcome reports due after June 2027 feed into the digital euro scheme rulebook.

• ecb.europa.eu
• Electronic Payments International