Bank of Spain allows MONEI to launch its own digital euro

Supervised by the Bank of Spain’s financial sandbox, EURM is part of the Bank of Spain's Controlled Testing Space, and it was designed to facilitate Europe-wide sending of euros and online payments by creating a token using Ethereum and Polygon Blockchain technology. Each token will represent one physical euro, the total of which will be held in two safekeeping accounts at Spanish financial institutions such as BBVA and Caixabank. 

Users that will take part in the testing phase for this stablecoin will be required to enter their phone numbers and verify their identities via a video identification system. Once the verification is complete, they will be able to load their wallets with real euros via Bizum, which is a provider of instant payment services in Spain. The system then creates the same amount of EURM as the euros deposited by the user, and EURMs can be exchanged back for euros at any time.

What are the practical uses of the digital euro?

MONEI representatives emphasised the project’s role in allowing citizens and businesses across the continent to send and receive money instantly. Potential uses of the digital euro once approved by the Bank of Spain include sending hundreds of euros to fractions of cents at various time intervals in order to pay for employees´ transport or food allowances, as well as allowing businesses to digitise and schedule daily payments to their suppliers according to that day’s consumption. 

The digital euro can also allow employees to choose whether they want to receive a daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly payroll, without increasing the company's workload. It can also divide a monthly payment into daily payments to meet a cost that cannot be paid at that time.

Other developments from MONEI

In November 2022, MONEI partnered with Mastercard to make Click to Pay technology available to electronic businesses in Spain. Mastercard Click to Pay allows users to shop without having to create or start an account, by avoiding the entry of the card number or personal information once the consumer has registered.

Customers only have to link their Mastercard card to Click to Pay. For their next purchase, they will be already able to pay immediately without having to enter the 16 digits of their card, and passwords, or fill out long forms. The goal of this partnership was to provide a secure online payment environment in which customers pay without the need to manually enter their card details in cases where their card is not stored in the store.