The European Central Bank's call for expressions of interest from payment service providers to participate in the digital euro pilot closes at 17:00 CEST on May 14, 2026. The Eurosystem expects to select between 10 and 30 PSPs from across the euro area. Selection results will be communicated by end of June.
The call for applications opened on March 5. Eligible participants must demonstrate capacity across prioritized use cases including person-to-person transfers, point-of-sale payments, and e-commerce. The final number of selected participants will depend on application quality, roles applied for, and geographical coverage across the euro area.
The pilot is planned to start in the second half of 2027 and run for 12 months. Settlement will flow through the Eurosystem's TARGET infrastructure.