The Bank of Finland (BOF) has taken the lead in coordinating the development of a Finnish instant payment solution that adheres to European standards, as announced on October 19 by Tuomas Välimäki, BOF Board Member and Member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB). This initiative comes as Finnish banks actively engage in the advancement of innovative payment methods. In particular, Välimäki highlighted the digital euro as the most prominent project in Europe's payments sector, underlining that its potential launch would enable consumers to make electronic payments with central bank-backed currency.
In collaboration with the European Payments Council, the Bank of Finland is spearheading the development of this Finnish instant payment solution. Significantly, this payment solution will be founded on credit transfers, circumventing the dependence on payment card rails. In a related development, Finnish company Membrane Finance introduced a fully reserve stablecoin, EUROe, backed by the euro in February 2023. The CEO of Membrane Finance, Juha Viitala, expressed optimism about the EUROe stablecoin's potential to encourage more Europeans to explore decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and enhance their financial growth.
The European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council, on October 18, announced the commencement of the "preparatory phase" for the digital euro project. This phase, spanning two years, will primarily concentrate on the finalization of regulatory guidelines for the digital currency and the selection of potential issuers.
