ECB names 36 payment firms for digital euro pilot starting 2027

The European Central Bank has named 36 payment service providers (PSPs) to participate in a twelve-month digital euro pilot, scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. Participants span 16 countries, while the pilot itself will operate across the ECB and 19 national central banks. The exercise is closed to the public; it will involve Eurosystem staff conducting transactions using a beta version of the digital euro, including payments at internal venues such as staff cafeterias.

The cohort covers a wide institutional range: two of the European Union’s seven global systemically important banks, France’s BPCE and Deutsche Bank, sit alongside EU subsidiaries of international fintechs including Stripe and Revolut, and major merchant acquirers such as Nexi and Worldline, as well as smaller institutions. Participants will take on distinct roles across the transaction stack, with some acting as merchant acquirers and others handling on- and off-ramp infrastructure for end users.

On the legislative side, the digital euro cleared a notable threshold last month when the ECON committee approved draft legislation, and the full European Parliament subsequently voted to enter trilogue negotiations with the European Commission and the Council. That sequence suggests the regulatory framework is advancing in parallel with the technical pilot, though the gap in geographic representation among PSPs is noted as uneven.