ECB chooses Amazon, CaixaBank, three others to develop prototype of digital euro

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), CaixaBank (OTCPK:CAIXY) (OTCPK:CIXPF), Worldline (OTCPK:WWLNF) (OTCPK:WRDLY), EPI and Nexi (OTCPK:NEXPF) all have been picked by the European Central Bank to develop user interfaces for a possible digital euro, according to a release Friday. The companies, which were chosen from a pool of 54 applicants, will each focus on developing one specific use case for the design trial. The group of service providers were chosen because they met “specific capabilities” required to test the use cases. E-commerce behemoth Amazon (AMZN), for instance, will be responsible for e-commerce payments, while Spanish bank CaixaBank (OTCPK:CAIXY) will work on peer-to-peer online payments for a mobile app. The offline version of peer-to-peer payments will be in the hands of French payments platform Worldline (OTCPK:WWLNF). EPI and Italian payments firm Nexi (OTCPK:NEXPF) will explore point of sale payments initiated by the payer and payee, respectively. Prototyping is expected to be completed in Q1 2023, when the central bank will also publish its findings from the exercise. The move comes in the midst of the ECB's two-year investigation into whether a digital euro, serving as an alternative to cash, should be issued. Of note, German Federal Bank President Jens Weidmann said last year that a potential launch of a digital euro should be a "gradual approach given the risks involved." In mid-June, ECB's Panetta said digital euro wo...