As Europe’s payments ecosystem enters a decisive phase, PaymentGenes Consultancy has released a new whitepaper, Digital Euro: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategic Implications for the Eurozone. This comprehensive analysis arrives as the European Central Bank (ECB) advances the digital euro from design into implementation planning, marking a pivotal moment for financial institutions, merchants, and technology providers across the continent. National supervisors, including De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), also play an essential role in shaping the regulatory environment and ensuring market readiness as Europe prepares for this transition.
The whitepaper explores why the digital euro is set to reshape the payments landscape. Key themes include the preservation of monetary sovereignty, reduction of acceptance costs, acceleration of innovation, and the importance of consumer trust. The ECB’s objectives—resilience, inclusion, privacy, and financial stability—are examined in detail, alongside critical design choices still under discussion. These include offline payment limits, coexistence with stablecoins and tokenised deposits, intermediary roles, and cross-border interoperability.
A central feature of the report is its outline of four potential future models for the digital euro: Open Ecosystem, Public Utility, Specialised Use, and Regulatory Minimum. Each scenario carries distinct implications for banks, payment service providers, and merchants, highlighting the need for organisations to prepare for a range of possible outcomes.
To support organisations in navigating these changes, the whitepaper provides a practical checklist. Recommendations include participating in pilots and rulebook initiatives, investing in digital ID and AML or fraud solutions, enabling offline capability, and upgrading APIs for hybrid settlement. These steps are designed to help businesses align strategy, technology, and compliance with the evolving European payments environment.
Ward Hagenaar, Co-Head of PaymentGenes Consultancy, emphasises the importance of proactive adaptation:
“As the ECB transitions from design to implementation, organisations must align their strategy, technology, and compliance to remain competitive. This whitepaper provides actionable insights for decision-makers preparing for Europe’s next payment evolution.”
As the central bank and financial regulator of the Netherlands, DNB contributes to shaping the supervisory and operational framework surrounding the digital euro. Its focus includes ensuring stability, security, and trust in the evolving payment landscape, as well as overseeing the readiness of Dutch financial institutions.
Combines treasury services, trade, card, and merchant services to help clients pay customers or employees in different currencies worldwide. Focused on supporting clients through digital transformation and evolving customer expectations, JPMorgan Chase processes nearly $10 trillion in payments daily and is the global leader in USD payments volume.
It is the financial technology platform of choice for leading companies. By providing end-to-end payment capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution, Adyen helps businesses achieve their ambitions faster. Adyen works with global brands such as Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.
It is a global digital payments platform that bridges traditional finance and digital assets. Founded in 2014, Wirex enables users to buy, store, exchange, and spend both fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies through a single app, including card-based payments accepted worldwide. The company is known for its focus on compliant crypto-payments, Web3 financial services, and real-world use cases for digital assets.
It is the European trade association representing the retail and wholesale sector. It speaks on behalf of millions of companies—from small independent merchants to large international retailers and wholesalers—operating across Europe. EuroCommerce engages with EU institutions and policymakers on payments, digitalisation, competition, sustainability, and consumer policy.
It is the Netherlands’ leading independent consumer advocacy organisation. It represents consumer interests through research, policy advocacy, and engagement with regulators and policymakers, focusing on fair markets, transparency, and consumer protection across sectors such as financial services, digital markets, energy, and mobility.
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Passporting gives PSPs the legal right to operate across the EU, but it does not guarantee operational capability, merchants must look beyond licences and verify local expertise, infrastructure, and compliance using tools like the Payments Ecosystem Directory.
In this article, we will review the latest developments in agentic commerce from a merchant perspective. We will compare user journeys, potential challenges, implementation models and value creation opportunities.
