Berlin Group
European open payment standards initiative developing technical specifications for retail payment systems; signed digital euro standards agreement with the ECB.
Last refreshed: 27 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Is the Berlin Group's open-banking framework the account-access layer that makes the digital euro distribute-able without US tech infrastructure?
Timeline for Berlin Group
Signed standards agreement with ECB to enable digital euro payment processing
European Tech Sovereignty: Digital euro stays on its own trackWhat is the Berlin Group in European payments?
What is NextGenPSD2 and why does it matter for the digital euro?
How does the Berlin Group's digital euro agreement work?
Background
The Berlin Group is a pan-European payment-industry initiative focused on open-banking standards, best known for its NextGenPSD2 framework, which defines API specifications that allow third-party payment-service providers and fintechs to access bank accounts under the EU's revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Its membership covers European banks, payment processors and fintech associations working toward a common technical foundation for account-to-account payments, data access and Open Finance.
On 24 April 2026 the Berlin Group signed a technical standards agreement with the ECB alongside ECPC and nexo standards, contributing its open-banking API specifications as a reference framework for Digital Euro infrastructure. The Digital Euro involves not just card-payment terminals but also account-based access flows, where Open Finance standards defining how payment-service providers connect to a central-bank ledger entry point are directly relevant. The Berlin Group's NextGenPSD2 work covers precisely this layer.
The group's significance for Digital Euro sovereignty is at the account-access layer: if the ECB's Digital Euro distribution goes through licensed payment-service providers (the banks and fintechs that will distribute digital euros to end users), those providers need standardised API connections to the ECB ledger. Berlin Group specifications are the European-governed alternative to building those connections on proprietary US-tech-stack APIs. The April agreement formalises their role in that infrastructure.
