ECB advances digital euro pilot, orders Visa payment oversight

The European Central Bank (ECB) has invited euro-area online merchants to apply for its digital euro pilot by 27 October 2026, designated the Visa Europe Payment System for systemically important payment oversight, and approved a feasibility assessment for connecting its instant-payment settlement platform with Brazil’s Pix. These measures appear in its 2 October release, “Decisions taken by the Governing Council of the ECB (in addition to decisions setting interest rates)”.

The update brings together decisions and announcements from July through September, rather than announcing a new interest-rate decision. It covers payment infrastructure, banking supervision, legal opinions and appointments.

Digital euro pilot opens doors to merchants and innovators

A call issued on 15 September invites e-commerce and mobile-commerce merchants operating in the euro area to participate in the digital euro pilot. Applications close on 27 October.

A separate invitation, issued on 28 September, seeks private companies and organisations interested in exploring how digital euro infrastructure could support their innovation work. That application window closes on 9 November.

The bank also plans to begin usability and accessibility testing during the digital euro pilot in 2027. Its 30 July announcement said the app’s design would exceed the requirements of the European Accessibility Act. These are pilot and testing arrangements, not an announcement that a digital euro is available for general use.

Visa oversight and a possible connection to Brazil’s Pix

On 24 August, the Governing Council adopted Decision ECB/2026/22 identifying the Visa Europe Payment System as a systemically important payment system under Regulation (EU) 2025/1355. The decision was notified to the German branch of Visa Europe Limited, the system’s operator for the euro area.

The designation places the payment system under Eurosystem oversight, with the ECB serving as lead overseer.

On 24 September, the Council approved the start of an assessment of whether TARGET Instant Payment Settlement, or TIPS, could be linked with Brazil’s Pix. It also reviewed progress on connections with other fast-payment systems globally and considered a Market Infrastructure Board recommendation on pricing the interlinking service. The update does not announce an operational Pix connection or publish pricing terms.

Legal framework for tokenised-asset settlement

The Council approved an agreement on 11 August governing the initial launch of Pontes, a solution designed to settle wholesale transactions in tokenised assets using central bank money.

The agreement between Eurosystem central banks and the Eurosystem national central banks providing the solution establishes a binding framework for a production-grade system while recognising the interim nature of this phase. It includes terms and conditions to underpin contracts with market participants and distributed-ledger technology operators.

On 11 September, the Market Infrastructure Board recommended proceeding with the scheduled initial launch date of 21 September. The wording of the update records that recommendation, rather than separately confirming the launch outcome.

Monetary-policy rules and crypto regulation

Amendments adopted on 22 September to the legal framework implementing Eurosystem monetary policy will apply from 30 November 2026. Guidelines ECB/2026/26 and ECB/2026/27 amend the implementation framework and the rules governing valuation haircuts, respectively. The update refers readers to a separate release for the substantive changes.

Earlier, on 7 September, the Council—with the General Council involved—approved the European System of Central Banks’ response to the European Commission’s targeted review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCAR.

The response welcomes an examination of how the rules could be improved, taking account of experience during their initial implementation, changing market conditions and approaches in other jurisdictions. The update does not set out specific proposed revisions.

A separate statistical guideline adopted on 11 September makes technical changes to monetary financial institutions’ balance-sheet and interest-rate reporting. These include aligning quarterly loan data for non-financial corporations with the revised EU classification of economic activities, NACE.

Bank supervision, personal data and whistleblowing

The update records the publication on 31 July of results from the 2026 geopolitical-risk reverse stress test, covering 110 euro-area banks directly supervised by the ECB. It does not describe the findings, so the bank count alone provides no basis for judging the institutions’ resilience.

On 4 August, the Council raised no objection to publishing the first annual report on whistleblowing across the Single Supervisory Mechanism. Covering 2025, the report aggregates information on reports received by the relevant authorities and subsequent follow-up in prudential supervision.

A personal-data decision considered on 30 July sets out how the ECB and national competent authorities share responsibilities as joint controllers when carrying out key supervisory tasks. The decision allocates compliance responsibilities under the respective EU data-protection rules applying to those institutions.

The Council also adopted delegation arrangements on 21 August for decisions involving group recovery plans, internal models and material changes to credit-risk rating systems. Follow-up decisions on 1 September designated heads of work units to exercise specified delegated powers. The stated purpose is to improve the handling of areas that generate a considerable volume of supervisory decisions.

Schnabel’s IMF move and institutional appointments

On 24 September, the Council agreed with its Ethics Committee’s assessment that Isabel Schnabel’s planned appointment as IMF Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department would neither create nor appear to create a conflict of interest. The committee concluded that no cooling-off period was required.

Schnabel resigned from her ECB position that day with effect from 3 January 2027. Her intended IMF start date is 4 January 2027.

The update also records the appointment of Sigríður Dis Guðjónsdóttir, Head of Payments and Resilience at the Central Bank of Iceland, as a non-voting Market Infrastructure Board member from a non-euro-area central bank. Approved on 30 July, her term runs until 31 May 2029.

On 11 September, the Council extended three Administrative Board of Review mandates by five years: member Christiane Campill and alternate Damir Odak until 30 November 2031, and member Pentti Hakkarainen until 31 January 2032. The board conducts internal administrative reviews of supervisory decisions.

Banknote survey draws almost ten million responses

Separately, a 23 September announcement reported almost ten million completed responses to the survey on future euro banknote designs. The survey ran from 23 July to 21 September 2026 and attracted participants from Europe and beyond.

The bank described the response volume as unprecedented for such a survey and equivalent to 2.6% of the euro-area population. That comparison measures the scale of participation; it does not mean all respondents were euro-area residents.

Source: European Central Bank, “Decisions taken by the Governing Council of the ECB (in addition to decisions setting interest rates)”, published 2 October 2026, covering the July–September actions described above: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//press/govcdec/otherdec/2026/html/ecb.gc261002~54c6b5672b.en.html