PANews reported on December 3 that the European Central Bank (ECB) released its second progress report on the digital euro project, outlining the latest work on the unified digital payment system for the euro area. The report updates the rulebook for the digital euro program, including minimum user experience standards and risk management frameworks, and conducts user research to understand preferences, providing support for a potential digital euro launch.
The report points out that the ECB will collaborate with merchants, payment service providers, fintech companies, and universities to test innovative use cases such as conditional payments, with research results expected to be published in July 2025. In addition, the ECB has completed the solicitation of applications from service providers for the digital euro components, and the results will be made public in 2025. The report emphasizes that the digital euro will provide consumers and merchants with fair fees, high privacy protection, and support the future development of the European payment system.