欧洲央行数字欧元规则手册开发小组工作进展报告

09 April 2025 Executive summary One of the key deliverables of the digital euro preparation phase is the draftdigital euro scheme rulebook, which is being developed in cooperation withthe digital euro scheme’s Rulebook Development Group (RDG).1To ensure ahigh level of transparency, the European Central Bank (ECB) frequently providesupdates on the status of the rulebook’s development and the work of the RDG. Thisreport provides information about the RDG’s activities since the last progress reporton its work, which was published in September 2024.2 A digital euro would be central bank money in digital form, issued by theEurosystem. It would serve as a means of payment for use by consumers andbusinesses in retail transactions across the entire euro area.3In addition, itwould be free for basic use, available both online and offline and designed to offerthe highest level of privacy and safety. The digital euro scheme rulebook will provide a single set of rules, standardsand procedures for digital euro payments.The rulebook’s requirements andspecifications will be addressed to payment service providers (PSPs), enabling themto develop basic digital euro services and potentially offer additional, innovativeservices. The rulebook’s open standards will facilitate private retail payment solutionproviders to roll out solutions across the euro area, thereby mitigating the currentmarket fragmentation, supporting innovation and competition. PSPs’ adherence tothe rulebook will ensure that, if a digital euro is issued, the user experience isconsistent across basic use cases throughout the entire euro area, irrespective ofthe country or the PSP used. Since the last progress report, progress has beenmade in three key areas. First, as a follow-up to the RDG’s interim review of the intermediate version ofthe rulebook in the first half of 2024, existing sections have been updated toreflect comments received from the RDG.The third progress report provided anextensive description of the review process, which resulted in more than 2,500comments. As of 1 March 2025, the cut-off date for this fourth report, well over 2,000comments had been addressed and 254 comments were still considered to be “open” as they require further elaboration or depend on outstanding dossiers,including the regulation. Second, the rulebook has been further developed together with marketparticipants in dedicated RDG workstreams.Since September 2024, there havebeen eight active RDG workstreams4, each consisting of a range of experiencedprofessionals. Since January 2025, two of these workstreams have concluded theirwork for the time being, while six of the workstreams are still active and haveongoing or planned sprints. The main aspects covered are (i) refining minimum userexperience standards based on clear principles, (ii) creating the guidelines ensuringa consistent roll out and recognition of the future digital euro brand and (iii)developing a front-end certification and approval framework for drawing on existingstandards to ensure a harmonised approach across the euro area. The focus hasalso been on developing risk management requirements to mitigate risks such asfraud risk and operational risk, and on further developing front-end and back-endimplementation specifications. Third, the RDG has been involved in several ad hoc discussions – mainly inthe form of expert sessions with market representatives nominated by theRDG – concerning topics that do not require a dedicated workstream.Expertsessions have been held on latency5and on dispute management6. In addition, theRDG has been informed of interactions with standardisation bodies about standardsidentified as being potentially suitable for use with the digital euro. Looking ahead, the next draft of the digital euro scheme rulebook will beprepared and shared with RDG members and their constituents so that theycan provide their comments.In parallel, the RDG will continue to work on the nextversion of the rulebook, including additions like further implementation specifications,non-functional requirements and risk management matters. Additionally, significantupdates will be delivered on the end-to-end flows and illustrative user journeys. Thedraft rulebook will be flexible enough to accommodate any future adjustments arisingfrom the legislative discussions among the co-legislators on the digital euroregulation proposed by the European Commission in June 2023.7 Introduction One of the key objectives of the digital euro project8is to prepare a draft digitaleuro scheme rulebook.The rulebook will consist of a single set of rules, standardsand procedures to standardise digital euro payments and related activities across theeuro area. It will draw on existing technical standards, for instance for the interfacesat the front end and back end. The rulebook will be addressed to payment serviceproviders (PSPs) participating in the scheme, who will have to adhere to therulebook’s requirements while preserving am