ECB: call for expressions of interest in a new wave of digital euro innovation platform activities

As part of the preparations for the potential introduction of a digital euro, the Eurosystem is launching a new wave of collaboration initiatives to stimulate innovation by market participants and to identify how the digital euro infrastructure could support them in their innovation efforts.

Following the launch of the innovation platform initiative (1) in 2024, the Eurosystem is now opening the door to further collaboration with different stakeholders, including small and large merchants, payment service providers (PSPs), technical service providers (TSPs), fintech companies, point-of-sale (POS) vendors, public institutions and entities, research institutes and consumer associations.

This new wave of innovation activities will build on the outcome of the innovation platform (2) and will be organised around two main workstreams:
• Experimentation: focuses on tangible innovative features and value-added services that the private sector could develop to improve the user experience for consumers and businesses.
• Exploration: explores novel technological developments that could enhance the digital euro in the future and help ensure that its infrastructure can support innovation by market participants.

Focus areas on experimentation
. Electronic integrated receipts (e-receipts)
Participants in this topic will explore how electronic receipts could be integrated into a digital euro transaction to provide users with a digital version of their receipt within their payment app. Activities will begin with a kick-off workshop to identify business and technical requirements. Based on these discussions, participants will assess alternative approaches for generating, sharing and storing e‑receipts, evaluating them in line with privacy by design, scalability, cost efficiency and operational complexity considerations, while also taking into account different merchant needs and levels of digitalisation.

In a second phase, participants will engage in hands‑on technical experimentation to assess the e‑receipt flow and possible standards. Dedicated APIs will be provided to enable the simulation of digital euro transactions and the associated handling of e‑receipts.

Through this focus area, participants will be able to enhance the user experience of digital euro transactions, explore more digital and efficient receipt management solutions and identify new service opportunities and value‑added offerings within the digital euro ecosystem. Participants may present multiple use cases related to e‑receipts in their application.

PSPs, TSPs, merchants and point-of-sale (POS) vendors are envisaged as the main target participants, although participation is also open to other interested stakeholders. Collaboration across the payment value chain is particularly encouraged. Expressions of interest involving cooperation between POS vendors, PSPs, TSPs and merchants are especially desirable, as they would enable more representative implementation scenarios.

. Multi-payer and multi-payee transactions
This focus area will look into multi-payer and multi-payee scenarios. Multi-payer scenarios refer to transactions in which multiple payers contribute equal or different amounts to a single payment settled as one transaction, for example when splitting a bill or making group purchases. Multi-payee scenarios involve transactions in which a single payer initiates one payment that is automatically distributed to multiple recipients, with the respective amounts routed and settled under the same logical flow.

The topic will be divided in a two-step approach leading to hands-on experimentation. It will start with a kick-off workshop aimed at identifying relevant business and technical requirements before moving on to a second phase in which participants will test multi-payer and multi-payee use cases using dedicated APIs.

Against this background, participants will explore concrete transaction scenarios, develop their own real‑life use cases and assess the implications of specific features on the user experience and the range of supported payment use cases, as well as their technical feasibility in line with digital euro design principles. Participants will be able to present multiple use cases in their application. These may relate to one or both types of scenarios, including multiple variations within the same transaction type.

PSPs, TSPs and merchants are envisaged as the main target participants, although participation is also open to other interested stakeholders.

. Conditional payments
This topic builds on findings from last year’s work, which focused on the reservation of funds, and aims to further explore conditional payments capabilities in a digital euro context. Conditional payments are transactions that are automatically executed when predefined conditions are met. These are not the same as programmable money, and the digital euro would never be programmable money.(5)

Work on this area will follow a two-step approach leading to hands-on experimentation. It will start with a kick-off workshop aimed at assessing the benefits and limitations of increased standardisation. This goes beyond the scope of the first iteration of the innovation platform, which primarily covered interactions between the digital euro service platform and PSPs.

In particular, the work will explore how the digital euro could support greater standardisation between PSPs and merchants, for example, by introducing a marketprovided common conditionality layer or using standardised conditions in reservation of funds scenarios. In addition, it will examine how conditional payments could be implemented without having to reserve funds (e.g. for recurring payments), and assess how such approaches might support innovation, automation and new payment use cases. Through structured discussions and technical exchanges, participants will
contribute to identifying feasible, interoperable and scalable approaches to conditional payments.

PSPs, TSPs and merchants are envisaged as the main target participants, although participation is also open to other interested stakeholders.

. Front-end features
This focus area aims to assess enhancements to the user experience, potential challenges, accessibility, and technical options for implementing front-end value-added services in the context of the digital euro.

Participating PSPs will help explore and develop new innovative user-facing functionalities that they could provide in their apps that sit on top of the payment infrastructure, with a view to enhancing the overall digital euro user experience within their ecosystem.

Participants may test and develop multiple innovative front-end features, for example behavioural biometrics, AI-enhanced features, advanced budget management tools and accessibility and inclusive design features6. Selected participants will develop PoCs, prototypes or demos of front-end features.

Participants will facilitate the exploration and timely integration of innovative solutions, gain early insights into potential digital euro capabilities and contribute to the development of user-centric functionalities in a collaborative setting, supporting innovation in the payments landscape and making the digital euro more attractive to customers.

PSPs, TSPs and fintech companies are envisaged as the main target participants, although participation is also open to other interested stakeholders.

 

Interested stakeholders are invited to express their interest by completing and submitting the application form by 17:00 CET on 9 November 2026 indicating which workstream(s) and focus area(s) they would like to participate in, outlining their motivation and relevant expertise and describing one or more use cases.

Joint applications, especially those covering different roles within a digital euro ecosystem (e.g. a merchant and a payment service provider), are encouraged (3).

Participants will be selected based on a structured assessment of the applications received. The assessment will consider several factors detailed in the sections below. The list of selected participants will be published on the ECB’s website in January 2027.

Participants will be expected to contribute meaningfully to the innovation activities, including by committing adequate resources and engagement for the duration of the workstream(s). Participation is voluntary. The Eurosystem will not provide any financial remuneration or compensation for activities carried out as part of the innovation platform.

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1. See the web page on the digital euro innovation platform on the ECB’s website.

2. See ECB (2025), “Digital euro innovation platform – outcome report: pioneers and visionaries workstreams”, September.

3. For joint applications, please only submit one application form. The form provides instructions on how to include information for both applicants.

4. For the purpose of the experimentation activities, all participants will interact with the environment as simulated PSPs, irrespective of their organisation type. The initial scope is limited to testing PSP-to-backend interactions and does not include complete end-to-end transaction flows across multiple participants or payment ecosystem actors.

5. The digital euro distinguishes conditional payments – transactions that are automatically executed when predefined conditions are met – from programmable money, which is a digital form of money used for a predefined purpose, like a voucher, with limitations on where, when or with whom it can be used. The European Commission’s proposed digital euro Regulation clarifies that the digital euro would never be programmable money.