Share this article
Private Banks to Manage Future Digital Euro Wallets, Transactions
The European Central Bank's new progress report on a central bank digital currency outlines the role of financial intermediaries.
Updated Dec 21, 2022, 2:56 p.m. Published Dec 21, 2022, 12:39 p.m.
Credit institutions and payment service providers will manage services associated with a digital euro issued by the European Central Bank, according to the bank's latest progress report on a retail digital currency.
The European Union is one of around 100 jurisdictions around the world that are considering issuing digital versions of sovereign currencies. The ECB's two-year investigation into a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will end in October 2023, after which EU leaders will decide whether to issue one.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Read more: Slicing the Elephant: Inside the Design of a Digital Euro
Although the ECB has previously said that "supervised private intermediaries" would be best at providing user-facing services and building new business models, the report published Wednesday outlines the role these entities will play in a digital euro payment system.
Intermediaries supervised by the ECB will function as the "direct counterparts for individuals, merchants and businesses," using the CBDC.
"Their responsibilities would include offering user-facing services, such as opening accounts or wallets, payment instruments and onboarding and offboarding, encompassing know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks. They would also provide devices or interfaces to pay with a digital euro in physical stores, online or person-to-person," the report said.
The ECB will supervise the intermediaries and handle the issuance and redemption of the CBDC.
The bank is also set to wrap up a prototyping exercise to gauge "how well potential back-end solutions developed by the Eurosystem could be integrated with front-end prototypes," in the first quarter of 2023, the report said. Earlier this year, the central bank faced criticism from EU lawmakers for selecting U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon to design one of its prototypes. The Eurosystem is the monetary authority of the euro zone, comprising the ECB and the national banks of the 19 countries that use the single currency.
Read more: ECB Picks Amazon, Nexi, 3 More to Prototype Digital Euro Apps
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
Macquarie sees U.S. Senate near crypto deal as market structure, GENIUS rules advance
The bank said bipartisan Senate talks on market structure legislation and parallel GENIUS Act rulemaking could deliver a workable U.S. crypto framework by early 2026.
What to know:
- Macquarie said bipartisan Senate talks are gaining momentum as Democrats weigh a Republican market-structure proposal.
- A Senate Agriculture draft giving the CFTC more authority over digital commodities is moving in parallel, with the two tracks expected to be reconciled in 2026.
- The bank sees U.S. regulators finalizing GENIUS Act and stablecoin rules on a similar timeline, potentially putting a comprehensive federal crypto framework in place by early 2026.
Top Stories
