Digital payment: Consumers make demands on digital euros

So far, many consumers have not heard of a digital euro – but their expectations of new cashless payment methods are clear. These should be safe and reliable (55 percent), easy to use (53 percent) and associated with very low or no fees (49 percent). This was the result of a representative survey by the European Consumer Organization (BeUC), Euroconsumers and International Consumer Research & Testing (ICRT) in ten euro countries.

“The digital euro can be a great opportunity for European payment transactions to make itself more independent of non -European payment providers,” says Dorothea Mohn, financial market expert at the Federal Consumer Center (VZBV). However, this only succeeds if it is accepted by consumers. “For this, a digital euro must be simply usable, designed safely and reliably.”

Currency keepers have been working on for years

For years, the euro currency keepers have been working on a digital variant of the European Community Currency under the leadership of the European Central Bank (ECB). According to the recent statements by ECB directorate member Piero Cipollone, 2029 could be a realistic date for the introduction of the digital euro.

With such an offer, the Euro-Note banks want to counter private providers, especially from the USA such as PayPal, Mastercard and Visa, which are currently dominating the market for digital payments in Europe, a European digital payment offer.

Few feel well informed about digital euros

According to their own statements, a good 42 percent of the adults surveyed and 51 percent of young people have never heard of the digital euro. And even among those for whom the topic is not new, only 11 percent of 18 to 74 year olds or almost 9 percent of 14 to 17 year olds feel well informed. A total of 10,227 people in ten euro countries, including 1,539 young people, were interviewed from May 19 to June 3 of this year.

At the end of 2025, the ECB council wants to decide whether the next preparation phase will be initiated for the digital euro. At banks and savings banks there is still a lot of skepticism as to whether the effort is worthwhile and it would not make more sense to expand the payment service Wero, which has been available since July 2024.

Wero is promoted by a merger of European banks and payment service providers (European Payments Initiative/EPI) and has so far been usable in Germany, France and Belgium.

The plans for a digital euro for private customers disabled the nationwide expansion of Wero Kolossal, “because some banks do not want to build parallel structures in Europe and therefore wait,” said the executive president of the Sparkassen- und Giroverband Hessen-Thuringia, Stefan G. Reuß. In any case, an introduction of a digital euro was “much too late with a view to the goal of European sovereignty in payment transactions,” said Reuss.