ECB set to greenlight digital euro in 2027, with rollout eyed for 2028

The European Central Bank could make a formal commitment to the digital euro in 2027, with the currency itself expected to arrive in 2028, according to Stéphane Latouche, chief representative for Asia-Pacific at Banque de France. Speaking at Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK, Latouche said the legislative process for the digital euro regulation is moving forward — and that progress clears the way for the ECB's formal nod next year.

The pitch: a digital version of central bank money that consumers can hold and spend, the way they use banknotes today. Cash use is quietly fading across the euro area while contactless and mobile payments take over. Meanwhile, European domestic payment schemes are losing ground to non-European providers that now lead the region's card payments market, and dollar-denominated stablecoins are increasingly used to settle transactions. According to Latouche, that mix raises serious questions about the efficiency, safety and strategic autonomy of euro-area payment services.

The design is deliberately additive, not disruptive. The digital euro would run alongside commercial bank money rather than replace bank deposits or existing payment services, and it would lean on infrastructure built by European public and private providers. Latouche also pointed to Wero, a European private payment initiative, as part of the wider push to widen digital payment options and complement the digital euro.

On the wholesale side, the Eurosystem launched its Pontes service in September 2026, making wholesale central bank digital currency available for payments involving tokenised assets. That service gets expanded in 2027 and its development is expected to wrap by the end of 2028. Banque de France is also teaming up with Euroclear on Project Pythagore, an effort to modernise and tokenise Europe's commercial paper market, using Pontes to settle the cash leg of those transactions.

Separately, the Eurosystem is building the APIA project to get European financial markets ready for broader use of distributed ledger technology and tokenised assets. Central bankers are talking with market participants about how different platforms might interconnect and how liquidity would be managed, with an API blueprint expected in 2028. Latouche framed the whole package as an extension of Europe's existing two-tier monetary system into digital payments and tokenised markets, keeping central bank and commercial bank money in their respective lanes.

In wholesale markets, Banque de France is nudging financial institutions to build practical tokenisation applications — including a possible clearing mechanism for tokenised bank deposits settled in central bank money. The clock, for now, runs toward 2027 and 2028.