Several large banks across Europe have started working together on a new digital currency tied to the euro.
Their goal is to provide a secure and reliable digital payment option that complies with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
The project involves nine banks, including ING from the Netherlands and Italy’s UniCredit. Others taking part are CaixaBank (Spain), Danske Bank (Denmark), Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria), KBC (Belgium), SEB (Sweden), DekaBank (Germany), and Banca Sella (Italy).
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To lead the project, the group has set up a new company in the Netherlands. This company will be responsible for designing and managing the digital currency, which is planned to be ready sometime in the second half of 2026.
The banks said the digital euro token will allow for low-cost money transfers across borders and at any time of day. The token will also support more advanced payment features, including automatic transactions and digital settlement of assets such as stocks or cryptocurrencies.
The team behind the project has stated that it welcomes additional banks to join in the future. They noted that using the same approach across all participating banks will be important for ensuring the system works smoothly.
Floris Lugt, who leads digital asset work at ING and represents the project publicly, said:
Digital payments are key for new euro-denominated payments and financial market infrastructure.
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