PAYMENT SERVICES : The digital euro makes a big step forward

Research evidence excerpt

PAYMENT SERVICES : The digital euro makes a big step forward

EQUITIES

PAYMENT SERVICES

FLASH NOTE

The digital euro makes a big step forward

23 JUNE 2026 Sector Research Report Production time: 19:08* (London time)

Research Analyst & Publishing Entities

Alexandre Faure BNP Paribas SA +33 1 42 99 52 38 alexandre.x.faure@bnpparibas.com

What happened

European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee voted today in favour of the establishment of the

digital euro.

This paves the way to the full legislative process concluding by the end the year. This would allow the ECB to start

piloting the digital euro in 2027 with full issuance set for 2029.

BNPP take

Main take:

As per our April sector piece ‘Can Europe break away?’, we believe that the digital euro is a major and underappreciated

change in the European payment landscape. This is more than a digital asset but a full-fledged payment method that

merchants will be required by law to accept, and that banks will be required by law to issue at no charge to the end

user. We estimate that domestic and intra-regional cross-border payment flows in the Euro Area account for c6% of

Visa's and c10% of Mastercard's net revenue.

Further thoughts:

The text adopted today in parliament is based on the initial legislative proposal published in 2023 and the many

amendments that followed. This makes it hard – to us at least – to get a very clear view as to the final text MEPs

adopted today.

Based on the PR that the European Parliament issued today, we note that:

1. Payment Services Providers will have a legal obligation to distribute the digital euro. Importantly, 'getting at least one

payment instrument, would be free of charge'. This was unclear to us in April. We read into this that banks will have to