PayLens Radar: the ECB opens the digital euro pilot to merchants, Revolut bids for a Swiss licence

PayLens Radar · Tuesday 22 September

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ECB opens the digital euro pilot to merchants

The ECB has invited e-commerce and mobile-commerce merchants across the euro area to join the digital euro pilot, with applications closing on 27 October and an information session on 6 October. It follows the 36 payment service providers selected in July; the 12-month pilot starts in the second half of 2027.

Until now the digital euro recruited payment service providers. This is the first time the acceptance side has been asked to sign up, and that is where a central bank digital currency either wins checkout space or does not. The merchants who join set the cost expectations everyone else inherits.

European Central Bank · Read the article

• Revolut bids for a Swiss licence with CHF 150 million behind it

  Revolut has filed with FINMA and committed more than CHF 150 million to Switzerland over five years, where it already has 1.3 million customers. Merchant acquiring is named in the planned offering, alongside Swiss IBANs and salary accounts, with a TWINT integration held out as a future possibility.

  CHStrategy

• German retailers reject the acceptance duty, ask to surcharge

  The HDE opposes Berlin plans to oblige shops and restaurants to offer a digital payment option, arguing 99 percent already do. Its price for compliance is the right to pass card fees to customers, banned in the EU for regulated consumer cards since 2018, plus cheaper methods.

  DERegulatory

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