- Amazon, along with 4 other companies, makes it to the list as European Central Bank partner for the development of the digital Euro Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
- CaixaBank, Worldline, EPI and Nexi are the other four companies to partner with ECB
- The digital Euro will be the largest CBDC launch in history
Amazon, along with 4 other companies, has been named as a European Central Bank partner for the development of the digital Euro. As more economies and monetary territories explore the use of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), the European Union has announced its plans to move forward with the digital Euro.
CaixaBank, Worldline, EPI and Nexi are the four companies named by the ECB.
Digital Euro development will focus on three key areas
Each company will work with the ECB on a specific area. Amazon will assist with the eCommerce payments interface. CaixaBank and Worldline are expected to work on the peer-to-peer online payments segment. Meanwhile, EPI and Nexi will bring their expertise to the point of sale element of the digital Euro.
The ECB announced on Friday that the work encompasses the development of potential user interfaces. This will involve testing how well the technology behind the digital Euro will integrate with the companies’ systems.
Amazon
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer and has attained prominence in cloud computing service providers.
CaixaBank
CaixaBank is a Spanish multinational financial services corporation. The Valencia-based financial group
Worldline
It is a global secure payments provider that offers transaction processing for banks and e-ticketing services.
EPI
EPI stands for European Payments Initiative. It launched as a joint venture of 33 European banks and credit providers.
Digital Euro will be the biggest CBDC launch
The Euro is the common currency for the European Union Monetary area. All in all, the Euro is legal tender in 19 of the 27 EU member countries and used in a further 6 countries. As things stand, the digital Euro will be the largest CBDC launch in history and will have a lot of lessons for the way to go with CBDCs going forward.
The EU has made swift progress with work on its CBDC, the digital Euro. They started working on the project in earnest in October 2021. The European Union hosts some of the most powerful economies in the world. As such, the effects of launching the digital Euro will be far-reaching, even in countries that do not directly use the Euro.
No immediate plans for ongoing digital Euro work
The ECB noted that the work agreed here is to test the systems. There are no plans to utilise these developed prototypes going forward. This, however, bodes well for the companies selected here as they can count this as a major vote of confidence in their abilities and will certainly count in their favour going forward. There are no plans for the digital Euro to replace cash.
Instead, the plan is for the digital Euro to work alongside cash. Compared to other continents, Europe is in a better position to adopt digital currency given the state of development of support infrastructure. The thrust is to improve digital inclusion through the addition of a digital version of the Euro.
Digital Euro a learning moment for African nations
Recently the BCAS called for a single digital currency for the Central African States after the Central African Republic forged ahead with its digital currency, the Sango. Earlier this year, the country had already adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender. This would present a good case study for the BCAS in its attempts to advocate for a single digital currency for a monetary union of many sovereign nations. The digital Euro is on course to be launched in 2023 as per the initial plan of the ECB.
