The European Central Bank has chosen the first operators who will test the digital euro in the field. In the EU there will be thirty-six selected from more than fifty candidates: in Italy there will be eight. Not only banks, therefore, but also technology companies, electronic money institutions and operators of payment circuits used by shops and consumers. While waiting for the approval of the European regulation, the system will be tested, also to understand the management capacity for a large number of payments and the ease of use in safety for users and merchants.
How the 2027 trial will work
The test will involve the ECB, 19 national central banks – including the Bank of Italy – some traders and some Eurosystem employees. The latter will be able to use an experimental version to send money to a colleague, pay in a commercial establishment or make online purchases.
Payments between people and payments to businesses, online and offline, will be tested. In shops it will also be possible to use systems that transform a smartphone or tablet into a payment terminal. For offline operations, two nearby devices will be able to exchange digital euros through NFC technology even without an internet connection.
The 36 operators identified will allow consumers to open and use the experimental wallet, including integrating it into their applications and allowing merchants to accept payments. Technical preparation will begin as early as the third quarter of 2026. Selected banks and companies will have to connect their systems to the digital euro platform, develop applications, pass security and certification tests and identify users and merchants to be involved.
What changes during the digital euro test
The currency used during the experimentation will be technically similar to the final project, but will not be legal tender. It will therefore not be possible to force a merchant to accept it and it will not yet be the digital equivalent of banknotes.
For the duration of the project participants will continue to have a normal bank account. The selected operators will have to directly bear the costs of the trial and will not be able to apply commissions to the employees or traders involved.
The final digital euro would instead be issued by the central bank, as happens with cash. It would not be a cryptocurrency: it would still have the same value as the traditional euro and would be issued and guaranteed by the Eurosystem. The use would take place via a bank’s application, a common app set up by the Eurosystem or, according to the project, also a card. It must be remembered that it would not replace banknotes and would not produce interest.
The limit on the portfolio and the risk for banks
Among the most discussed and to be tested points is the quantity of digital euros that each citizen will be able to keep in their wallet. The final limit has not yet been decided. The ECB has carried out simulations with thresholds between 500 and 3,000 euros, but it will be up to the legislator to establish the maximum limit within which the central bank will then set the operational threshold.
The limit serves to prevent large quantities of money from being transferred from current accounts to portfolios guaranteed directly by the central bank, taking away deposits and liquidity from credit institutions.
Digital euro, what changes for your money and why it could reduce payment costs
However, the threshold should not prevent purchases of a higher amount. In fact, the system provides a connection with the bank account: if the digital balance is not enough, the difference could be automatically withdrawn from the account. However, when the wallet exceeds the limit, the excess would be transferred to the bank. These mechanisms will be tested during the pilot project.
The 8 Italian banks (but not only) selected for the digital euro test
Eight companies from the Italian market appear on the ECB’s list: Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Sella, Isybank of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, UniCredit, Poste Italiane, Nexi Payments, Numia and Satispay. Therefore, not only banks: payment managers will also participate in the test.
Towards the digital euro: who pays for it?
Alongside the Italians, some of the major European payment players were selected: Deutsche Bank, Revolut Bank, Adyen, Stripe, SumUp, Worldline, Bpce, Raiffeisen and Banco Comercial Portugues. The ECB explained that it sought balanced representation in terms of size, business models and geographical presence.
“The strong market interest shows the willingness of the private sector to actively participate and rapidly advance the project,” said Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB Executive Board and chair of the digital euro task force.