Share this article
ECB Official Defends Amazon’s Role in Testing a Digital Euro
Being independent in payments shouldn’t mean protectionism, central banker Jürgen Schaaf said.
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:09 p.m. Published Sep 28, 2022, 11:59 a.m.
A European Union official defended the bloc's decision to give Amazon (AMZN) a prime role in testing a digital euro.
The U.S. retail giant was one of five companies selected by the European Central Bank to develop a user interface for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) earlier this month, ahead of a September 2023 decision over whether to actually issue a digital euro.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“The prototyping experiments for the front end are driven by technological considerations,” Jürgen Schaaf, an adviser to ECB senior management on payment issues, said Wednesday in a panel discussion in London that was hosted by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. “The companies that have been chosen for that five were the most appropriate in terms of the needs that we have for technological tests and experiments.”
Read more: ECB Picks Amazon, Nexi, 3 More to Prototype Digital Euro Apps
Amazon, which will look into the use of CBDC’s in e-commerce, is the only non-EU company included among the five selected. Others include payment companies Nexi and Worldline, Spain’s CaixaBank (CABK), and the European Payments Initiative, a consortium of euro-area banks.
The results of the prototypes won’t automatically feed into the subsequent experimental phase, Schaaf said, suggesting Amazon won’t continue to have favored access.
Ensuring Europe’s resilience and autonomy is one of the stated goals of the digital euro, in a payments market that is dominated by non-European companies like Visa and Mastercard. Schaaf cited the risks if financial sanctions imposed from abroad put the brakes on the EU economy by limiting transactions, but said he didn't want to see a "political" exclusion of U.S. companies.
“Our wish to strengthen our monetary autonomy with a digital euro does not mean that Europe would shut down all its gates for retailers from abroad,” Schaaf said. “There’s no protectionist intention behind that.”
The EU is one of a number of jurisdictions across the world contemplating a CBDC, and if agreed to, the digital euro could be issued in 2026.
Read more: Digital Euro to Focus on Personal Use, Not Web3, EU Officials Say
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Canadian Province Wins Forfeiture of $1M QuadrigaCX Co-Founder's Cash, Gold via Default Judgment
The ruling transfers cash, gold bars, watches, and jewelry seized from a CIBC safety deposit box and bank account into government hands after Patryn did not defend the case.
What to know:
- The Supreme Court of British Columbia has forfeited $1 million in cash and gold tied to QuadrigaCX's co-founder, Michael Patryn, to the government.
- Patryn did not contest the forfeiture, which involved 45 gold bars, luxury watches, and over $250,000 in cash seized under an Unexplained Wealth Order.
- The forfeiture may lead to a process determining if any assets can be directed to QuadrigaCX's creditors, who received 13 cents on the dollar in the bankruptcy settlement.
Top Stories
