The apex bank in Spain has authorized Monei to issue its first digital euro. It is a pilot test to reveal how the digital euro will perform. Monei is a European financial firm that is concentrated on providing an all-in-one service where merchants can manage their payment stack. It’s also a member of the European Payments Council under the SRTP group.
According to the report, the project will be available to a small group of users in Spain requiring prospective users to submit their phone numbers, verify their identity via video upload, and deposit their wallets with real euros through Bizum, a free payment system supported by most Spanish banks.
Once done, the user will have the exact amount of real euros deposited in their wallet as digital euros. For example, €15 will produce €15 digital, which they can use with other registered organizations under the pilot program.
Furthermore, all the real euro money deposited by users will be safely kept at BBVA and CaixaBank, both Spanish multinational financial services companies, and can be exchanged by the owners at any time.
ECB pioneered digital euro research
Before this announcement by the Bank of Spain, the European Central Bank headed by Christine Lagarde alongside 19 central bank governors from the EU launched a research project on a possibility of a digital euro in October 2021.
According to the ECB, the research is expected to be concluded in October 2023, with the expectation that the “digital euro would provide an anchor of stability for our money in the digital age”.
Speaking about the partnership between the Bank of Spain and Monei, the report explained that after the testing phase of the digital euro-pilot program, the results and feedback will be collected as a basis to decide if the project will be open to the public or not.
The apex bank also stated that while this digital euro is not the responsibility of the ECB, there are plans to extend the instrument to other European countries.
Álex Saiz Verdaguer, CEO and founder of Monei revealed that the pioneering digital euro project in Spain can be the final product the ECB will implement. “The Bank of Spain has been the fastest and most innovative, and it may sit down with the ECB and say that we have the product, that it is regulated and supervised, and that it is shaped from there”.
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