[Digital Today reporter Choo Hyun-woo] The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to introduce three European open payment standards for the digital euro infrastructure. The move aims to reduce dependence on closed payment networks dominated by Visa and Mastercard in the euro zone payments market, blockchain media outlet BeInCrypto reported on April 26.

The ECB signed agreements with the European Cards Payment Cooperation (ECPC), the Nexo Standards and the Berlin Group. The digital euro will be built on open shared infrastructure rather than a specific provider’s specifications. European payment providers can use this technology base without paying fees to global card schemes.

The standards divide roles by payment stage. CPACE, developed by ECPC, will handle near-field communication-based contactless payments. The Nexo Standards will connect merchant systems with payment service providers and acquirer back ends to support in-store payments and automated teller machine transactions. The Berlin Group specifications will apply to account-based transfers using identifiers such as mobile phone numbers, balance inquiries and links to merchant apps.

The ECB said there is no single open standard in Europe covering payment terminals overall, and that Europe has relied on proprietary specifications of global card schemes and digital wallets. If the three open standards are introduced, national card schemes will be able to expand beyond their home markets while keeping existing terminals. If the digital euro gains legal tender status, European payment providers will also be able to expand across borders.

The Berlin Group’s API framework is already used in about 80 percent of the European market and is used as the basis for PSD2 open banking by banks and fintech apps. ECPC was established in 2020 by six payment companies in France, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain and Portugal. Nexo is an international non-profit organisation headquartered in Brussels.

Piero Cipollone (피에로 치폴로네), a member of the ECB’s Executive Board, said the agreements are a step toward a freer payment infrastructure. He added that the effects will only fully take hold after the EU’s joint legislative bodies adopt digital euro rules. Until a legal foundation is established, the standards will remain optional and providers will find it difficult to be confident about investment premised on expansion across the euro zone.

Major European banks are also expanding moves to integrate cryptocurrency trading into existing financial platforms.

KBC, Belgium’s largest banking and insurance group, began offering bitcoin and ether trading for retail investors earlier this year through its online brokerage platform Bolero. The key to the change lies not in large banks opening access to digital assets, but in how they are introduced. Rather than creating a separate service, KBC built crypto trading functions into its existing regulated platform and customer usage flows.

The trend is spreading across Europe. Over the past 12 months, BBVA launched services in Spain and DZ Bank, Germany’s largest cooperative financial group, followed. Societe Generale built digital asset infrastructure through its subsidiary Forge.

Banks are connecting digital asset functions to existing compliance, reporting and customer systems. Customers can trade bitcoin in existing accounts like stocks, and banks can process it within the same operating framework.

Competition among European banks in digital assets is shifting from simply adopting crypto trading to who can embed it faster within existing financial infrastructure.