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The European Central Bank (ECB) recently opened applications for vendors who wish to collaborate on creating a framework for the digital euro, including components and related services that they would be required to provide should the digital euro ever go live.
According to the ECB, vendors would be signing contracts that could total more than 1 billion EUR.
ECB is looking to make five agreements with vendors
The ECB has been considering the possibility of launching a digital EUR for a long time, and it even conducted a lengthy investigation phase, which finally reached its conclusion in 2023. Following the conclusion of the investigation, the ECB decided in October of last year to move on to the preparation phase of the digital EUR.
However, it has never decided to roll it out officially. In other words, the bank simply decided to have everything prepared for its central bank digital currency (CBDC), if the decision to launch it was made.
As part of making said preparations, the central bank has issued calls for applications to establish a number of framework agreements for the alias lookup component. It also seeks agreements for app and SDK components, fraud and risk management components, the secure exchange of payment information, and offline services.
At some point in the near future, the ECB intends to invite the highest-ranking respondents and have them submit their offers in a subsequent Invitation to Tender. The mentioned five agreements could have a total worth of approximately 1 billion EUR. The bank also said the agreements would run for four years, starting early 2025.
Other components necessary for the CBDC launch, including payment settlement, would be sourced internally from within the Eurosystem.
The time to apply is short
Initially, the banks worried that the Eurosystem would impose its own wallet, independent from the bank offerings. However, it appears that the app and SDK components will support intermediaries in the provision of digital euro services through their own apps and online interfaces.
Despite the fact that the project will not officially launch until January 2025, the ECB said that the time to apply is limited and short. In fact, the shortest deadline is for the risk and fraud management project, which will close in only a month, on February 8. The rest of the contracts will also close in February, although each has its own closing date.
As for the budget, the largest will be valued at €220.7 million, and it is the value of the offline CBDC agreement.
