Up to 30 banks, working in concert with infrastructure providers Bizum, Iberpay and Redsys, intend to roll out the PoC with the aim of undertaking an in-depth analysis of the technical, operational and business implications of the digital euro and its co-existance with existing payment instruments.

The project’s roadmap envisages that this proof of concept shall be completed prior to the end of 2022, deploying, in a controlled production environment, the various digital currency payment use cases proposed by the Eurosystem.

The tests will include the simulated person-to-person remittance of digital euros, payments in e-commerce and physical commerce payments, based on a model in which, as with the current euro, banks would be the custodians of their customers’ digital currency accounts.

The conclusions of the exercise are expected in 2023.