The European Central Bank has launched a targeted call for technical service providers to help prepare Europe’s payments market for a potential digital euro, signalling a shift from high-level design debates toward concrete operational planning across the euro area.
In a notice published on 27 January 2026, the ECB said it would host two expert-level workshops in early March focused on the role that technical service providers, or TSPs, could play in supporting payment service providers during the next phase of the digital euro project. The move follows the ECB Governing Council’s October 2025 decision to advance the project toward pilot testing in the second half of 2027, with market readiness for a possible first issuance targeted for 2029.
From concept to market infrastructure
Under current plans, payment service providers, such as banks and payment institutions, would remain responsible for distributing digital euro services to consumers and for acquiring and processing merchant payments. As in today’s card and instant payment markets, many PSPs are expected to rely heavily on external technology partners to build and operate these services.
The ECB argues that TSPs could play a central role in lowering costs, accelerating deployment and ensuring that digital euro solutions are robust and interoperable across borders. By formally engaging the sector now, the Eurosystem is seeking to better understand which parts of the digital euro value chain could realistically be outsourced or supported by specialised providers.
The two half-day workshops will mirror the two main PSP activities. One will focus on distribution, covering technologies that help PSPs deliver digital euro services to consumers. The second will focus on acquiring and acceptance, examining how merchants could be enabled to accept digital euro payments through existing or adapted infrastructure.
What the ECB wants to learn
According to the ECB, the workshops are designed to serve three main purposes. First, they will provide a stocktake of the current European TSP landscape in retail payments and assess its technical capabilities. Second, they will explore where along the digital euro value chain TSPs could add the most value, both on the consumer-facing and merchant-facing sides. Third, they will gather views on how the Eurosystem itself could facilitate PSP readiness, whether through standards, interfaces or other forms of support.
Participants will be invited to share their perspectives in detail, and the ECB plans to publish a summary of each workshop’s outcomes together with a list of attendees. This transparency suggests the discussions are intended to inform not only internal Eurosystem planning but also the wider policy debate around the digital euro ecosystem.
Selection criteria and next steps
Participation is open to TSPs active in the EU retail payments market and established within the Union. Applicants must submit an expression of interest by 10 February 2026, indicating whether they wish to attend the distribution workshop, the acquiring and acceptance workshop, or both.
The ECB said participants will be selected through a structured assessment, taking into account factors such as relevance to EU retail payments, experience supporting PSPs, technical capabilities related to digital euro services, geographical coverage and the ability to support different types of PSPs. Some criteria, including being based outside the EU, may be grounds for exclusion.
The workshops feed into a broader roadmap. In 2026, the Eurosystem plans to launch a separate call for expressions of interest for European PSPs to take part directly in the digital euro pilot scheduled for 2027. Any final decision to issue a digital euro would only be taken once the relevant EU legislation has been adopted.
For payment technology firms, the invitation is an early opportunity to influence how Europe’s most ambitious public payments project may be implemented in practice, and to position themselves within a future digital euro market infrastructure.
Related: ECB Outlines Core Design Features for the Digital Euro in New Technical Annex