The Digital Euro's 2027 pilot phase now has a clearer picture of who will build it. Nexi, the Italian PayTech listed on Euronext Milan, has been named as one of the Payment Service Providers chosen to participate in the ECB's twelve-month testing programme.
The pilot is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. Nexi's role will span testing technical functionalities and operational processes, and contributing to user experience design across the payment system.
For Nexi, this is a third successive phase of Digital Euro engagement. In 2022, the company was among five firms tasked with building front-end prototypes to test different payment use cases. In 2024, working alongside Giesecke & Devrient, Nexi was selected to support the ECB in making offline Digital Euro payments available to consumers and merchants across Europe.
"We are pleased to participate in the Digital Euro pilot project and to make our experience, expertise and infrastructure available in developing a solution that is not only secure and sustainable, but also simple and accessible for all European citizens and merchants," said Renato Martini, Digital Banking Solutions Director of the Nexi Group.
The twelve-month pilot will stress-test the payment infrastructure underpinning the proposed Central Bank Digital Currency. The ECB's selection of established processors with existing cross-border experience signals that the focus is operational readiness, not a clean-slate technology build.
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