The European Central Bank is forming a working group that will consult on the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) rulebook for the Digital Euro Scheme. All potential digital payments in euros will have to comply with the set of rules created with the work on the rulebook starting in February.

In December, the ECB appointed Christian Schäfer to manage the regulation of the digital euro system. He is now looking for people to join the Rulebook Development Group that Schäfer chairs, but they must represent a stakeholder association. Relevant stakeholders include banks, payment providers, as well as the users of a potential digital euro, such as consumers, retailers, businesses or SMEs. These members will be joined by Eurosystem staff.

Applicants are expected to be nominated by the stakeholder group they represent and have the right experience and knowledge to add value. The closing date for applications is January 20.

In recent months, the ECB has increased its interest demands. In November, it began asking payment industry experts for use cases of programmable money for retail payments. At the end of this month, the central bank plans to launch a six-week “market research” program to invite CBDC market participants to submit technical design options.

Meanwhile, last year the digital euro project provided updates in September and December, highlighting current design thinking. The December update made it clear that the Eurosystem central banks will be solely responsible for the settlement of all online transactions, although they will not have access to customer details. The technology used will be driven by functionality. In addition, five companies, including Amazon and CaixaBank, are developing user interfaces for the digital euro application.