ECB Picks Open European Standards for Digital Euro, Sidelining Visa and Mastercard

The European Central Bank (ECB) signed agreements with three European standard-setting bodies to build the digital euro on open, non-proprietary infrastructure, directly challenging the dominance of Visa and Mastercard across the eurozone.

The deals with the European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC), nexo standards, and the Berlin Group give the digital euro a free, shared technical foundation that any European payment provider can adopt without paying global card scheme fees.

Three standards, three layers of payments

CPACE, developed by ECPC, will handle contactless tap-to-pay transactions over near-field communication. Nexo standards connect merchant systems to the back-ends of payment service providers and acquirers, supporting in-store payment acceptance and ATM transactions. Berlin Group rules cover account-based transfers using identifiers such as mobile phone numbers, plus balance checks and merchant app integrations.

Approximately 80% of the European market already uses Berlin Group’s API framework standards, which underpin PSD2 open banking for banks and fintech apps. ECPC was founded in 2020 by six payment firms from France, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, and Portugal. Nexo is an international non-profit headquartered in Brussels.

Direct hit on Visa and Mastercard

The ECB said Europe lacks a single open standard across payment terminals. This leaves the region dependent on proprietary systems run by global card schemes and digital wallets. Adopting three open standards would allow national card schemes to expand beyond home markets. They could use existing terminals without rebuilding infrastructure.

European payment providers would gain the ability to scale across borders once the digital euro carries legal tender status. The move parallels efforts by Wero, which already operates in France, Germany, and Belgium with the explicit goal of reducing reliance on Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal.

Regulation gates the rollout

Piero Cipollone, ECB board member, called the agreements a step toward freer payment infrastructure.

He said they could give private firms alternatives to proprietary payment rails.

“The open digital euro standards will provide a European free alternative to current proprietary standards, make it easier for new European providers to enter the market and give European payment service providers and merchants the certainty they need to invest, innovate and compete across the euro area.”

The benefits will not arrive until EU co-legislators adopt the digital euro regulation. Without that legal foundation, the standards remain optional, and providers cannot count on a euro-area-wide scale for their future investments.

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