The ECB has finished the selection for the digital euro pilot. Applications opened in March this year - a call to payment service providers, banks and non-bank institutions, to join a test of the new infrastructure. Over 50 responded. 36 were picked - in a dual role: some will give users access to digital accounts, others will process payments at merchants.
Fact
The facts: the ECB picked 36 payment service providers (banks and non-bank institutions) from over 50 applicants to the March 2026 call. The pilot starts in the second half of 2027 and runs for 12 months - technical functions, operational processes and user experience, coordinated between the ECB and the 19 national central banks of the euro area. Specific participant names haven't been disclosed - only collective characteristics (varying in size and business model, spread across geography). Source: ECB, 14 July 2026.
Slow down the excitement. 2027 sounds close, until you count what has to happen before it - integration into the systems of 36 separate institutions, a real test with users, then an honest reckoning of whether the result justifies the next step. Twelve months of testing doesn't mean it launches on month thirteen. The digital euro has been collecting postponed deadlines for years. This selection is a real step. Just a step - the start is still far ahead.
Beta isn't a product. It's a rehearsal, before the hall is full.
There's a real Bulgarian thread here. The rail you and Bulgarian merchants will probably be paying on in a few years is already being poured - right as Bulgaria joins the euro area and the BNB becomes part of the Eurosystem. Which of ours will be among the 36, we don't know yet, no names. But the infrastructure is being built now, years before the digital euro is legal tender.
Official primary sources
ECB - ECB selects 36 PSPs to join digital euro pilot, 14.07.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.