Monei gets green light from Bank of Spain to test digital euro ‘EURM’

By Gloria Methri

Payments FinTech Monei has been granted approval by the Bank of Spain to launch its own digital euro: EURM. The euro-pegged digital token has emerged from the bank’s digital sandbox for testing innovative new propositions. EURM facilitates Europe-wide sending of euros and online payments by creating a token using Ethereum and Polygon Blockchain technology.

In the test phase, the user must simply enter their phone number, verify their identity through video identification, and load their wallet with real euros via Bizum, the provider of instant payment services in Spain. Automatically, the same amount of EURM is created as deposited by the user and they can send these coins to the other registered users.

Each token will represent one physical euro, the total of which will be held in two safekeeping accounts at leading Spanish financial institutions such as BBVA and Caixabank. EURMs can be exchanged for euros at any time and will always be the same number of EURMs as euros backing them.

Álex Saiz Verdaguer, CEO and founder of MONEI highlighted the potential of this project stating that “the future of payments is digital. This is our opportunity to show the rest of Europe and the world that we are at the forefront. EURM is the ultimate pan-European solution that will allow citizens and businesses across the continent to send and receive money instantly”.

Among the various uses of the digital euro, once it is approved by the Bank of Spain, are the following:

• Sending hundreds of euros to fractions of cents at various time intervals, for example, to pay for employees´ transport or food allowances.
• Allowing a business to digitize and schedule daily payments to its suppliers according to consumption that day.
• Prorate a monthly payment into daily payments to meet a cost that cannot be paid at that time.
• Allow employees to choose whether they want to receive a daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly payroll, without increasing the company’s workload.