Digital Euro : The ECB Prepares an Unprecedented Plan to Bypass Visa and Mastercard

The digital euro is taking a more political than technical turn. The ECB wants to build an open European payment infrastructure capable of reducing the continent’s dependence on Visa, Mastercard, and major foreign digital wallets.

The ECB No Longer Only Wants to Create a Digital Currency

While cryptocurrency adoption is slowing in developed economies, the European Central Bank has concluded agreements with three standardization organizations to prepare digital euro payments based on open standards. These are the European Card Payment Cooperation, nexo standards, and the Berlin Group.

These partnerships aim to enable banks, merchants, and European service providers to rely on a common technical infrastructure, independent from the proprietary rails of major international networks.

This choice changes the interpretation of the project. Until now, the digital euro was often presented as a digital version of cash. Useful, but somewhat abstract to the general public. With this announcement, the ECB shows something else. It also wants to regain control over the payment piping.

The message is discreet but significant. In Europe, paying with a card or wallet often means using a non-European infrastructure. The consumer does not see it. The merchant feels it through fees. Banks know it too. The ECB therefore wants to prevent the digital euro from being born trapped in the same circuits.

Three Standards to Build a European Alternative

The first pillar is CPACE, led by the European Card Payment Cooperation. It is intended for contactless payments, notably the famous “tap-to-pay” used with physical terminals. The goal is not to reinvent the payment gesture. It is to change what happens behind the gesture.

The second pillar comes from nexo standards. Its role concerns the connection between merchant terminals, acquirers, and payment service providers. This is a less visible, almost thankless part. Yet, this is where the real acceptance of a payment method in stores and ATMs is decided.

The third pillar is the Berlin Group. Its standards are already very present in European open banking. They can facilitate account-linked payments, with simple identifiers like a phone number. In short, the ECB is not starting from scratch. It is assembling bricks already known to the market.

The Real Issue Is Payment Sovereignty

The ECB is not only looking for a cheaper solution. It seeks room for maneuver. In a world where payments are becoming strategic, depending on external actors is no longer a mere commercial matter. It is a vulnerability.

Reuters already recalled that the institution views the digital euro as a tool to maintain public money in the digital economy, unify a highly fragmented European market, and limit the weight of non-European providers. The expected cost remains high: between 4 and 6 billion euros for European banks over four years, according to an estimate communicated by Piero Cipollone.

But this cost can also be read differently. The ECB bets that a common infrastructure will reduce fees in the long term, especially for merchants. Banks would distribute the applications to users, while the ECB would not charge its network service to financial institutions. This detail matters. It gives the project an economic rationale, not just an institutional one. Meanwhile, China is tightening its stance against crypto and gradually reducing its financial ties with the United States, reinforcing the idea of an increasingly fragmented monetary world.