The European Central Bank (ECB) has concluded a framework agreement in ranking with Feedzai, the world’s leading RiskOps platform for financial crime prevention, as the first-ranked tenderer, to provide the central fraud detection and prevention mechanism for the digital euro.
Representing 440 million citizens and more than $17 trillion in GDP, the eurozone is the world’s second-largest economy. The introduction of the digital euro would mark the most significant monetary innovation in Europe since the launch of the common currency in 1999.
The framework agreement for the risk and fraud management component has an estimated value of €79.1 million and a maximum value of €237.3 million. In partnership with its subcontractor PwC, Feedzai would deliver a state-of-the-art central fraud detection and prevention mechanism, ensuring full compliance with EU security, privacy, and data protection standards.
While the framework agreements set the terms for potential future work, the actual development of the components – or certain parts of them – will be decided at a later stage. Following the framework agreement conclusion, Feedzai and other successful tenderers will work with the ECB to finalize planning and timelines. Under the guidance of the ECB Governing Council and in line with EU legislation, this work will cover the design, integration, and development of the Digital Euro Service Platform (DESP).
The Digital Euro: A Public Good for the Digital Age
The ECB has repeatedly underlined that the digital euro is being designed as a public good: a central bank-backed form of money, as reliable as cash but adapted for the digital age. Its objectives include preserving the role of central bank money in an increasingly digital world, reducing reliance on non-EU payment providers, reinforcing Europe’s strategic autonomy, and supporting financial inclusion.
Privacy remains a central design principle: the ECB has stated that digital euro transactions will include strong safeguards, such as pseudonymisation and encryption, and will allow for offline, cash-like payments for small amounts.
Feedzai’s Role: Central Fraud Detection and Prevention
Feedzai has been selected as the first-ranked tenderer in the framework agreement to provide the central fraud detection and prevention solution for the future digital euro. Its role is to contribute to safeguarding transactions from fraud by enriching payment service providers’ (PSP) own risk management with insights derived from a central infrastructure-level view.
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