The Eurosystem has updated its retail payments strategy, which was first developedin 2019 and then expanded in 2020.

1 Strengthening the European payments market  through the creation of a pan-European solution for retail payments at the point of interaction (POI) and the enhancement of the “classic” SEPA (Single Euro Payments  Area) still remain at the heart of the Eurosystem’s efforts to improve retail payments  within the euro area.

The retail payments strategy and the digital euro project, which was launched in  October 20212 , are complementary, and a digital euro could contribute to the goals of  the strategy in multiple ways. Both aim to achieve a higher level of efficiency, strategic autonomy and resilience, as well as supporting digitalisation and innovation  in retail payments. A digital euro would offer a pan-European payment solution,  making as much use as possible of existing industry standards, components and  technology, and allowing for synergies with private solutions and enabling them to  also achieve a pan-European reach. 

Many external developments have affected the payments ecosystem since 2020. 

Notably, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, increasing cyber threats  and the ever-growing reliance on electronic payments have underlined the  importance of improving the resilience of retail payments, which is a new goal of the  strategy