European Central Bank Selects Companies to Prototype Digital Euro Application

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced that it is working with five companies to develop potential user interfaces for the digital euro.

The ECB said it has selected Amazon, fintech company Nexi, Spanish digital bank CaixaBank, French payment platform Worldline and the European Payment Initiative, or EPI, which will focus on developing a prototype based on specific digital euro use cases.

According to the ECB, the companies will develop external prototypes that will not be used in later stages of the digital currency project.

The ECB studied the companies' "specific capabilities" and compared them to 50 other developers who wanted to participate in the project. Officials planned to complete the project in the first quarter of 2023 as part of a two-year research phase on the digital euro, due to end in October 2023.

The exact release date of the digital euro is not known. ECB officials are studying the risks and potential impact of the digital euro on Europe.