Spanish Fintech MONEI is reporting that it has received the “green light” from the Bank of Spain’s Fintech Sandbox to launch a digital Euro – “EURM.”
MONEI is a platform that aims to simplify and streamline digital payments, allowing any organization to integrate with Shopify and other e-commerce platforms through a simple API.
The digital Euro project is part of the Bank of Spain’s Controlled Testing Space. MONEI says that instant payments have become the new normal by enabling fast and flexible digital money flow. At the same time, there are challenges like national borders and an attachment to an archaic technical, financial system. EURM is designed to facilitate Europe-wide sending of Euros and online payments by creating a token using Ethereum and Polygon Blockchain technology.
According to MONEI, during the test phase, the (individual) user enters their phone number, verifies their identity through video identification, and loads their wallet with real euros via Bizum, a provider of instant payment services in Spain. Automatically, the same amount of EURM is created as the number of real euros deposited by the user, and they can send EURM to the other registered users. Users will be individuals and will be able to issue EUR 10 per participant. The potential number of EURM users in Spain is almost 57 million users as the total number of mobile phone lines in the country. Each token will represent one physical Euro, the total of which will be held in two safekeeping accounts at Spanish financial institutions such as BBVA and Caixabank.
EURMs can be exchanged for Euros at any time as there will always be the same number of EURMs as Euros backing them.
Álex Saiz Verdaguer, CEO and founder of MONEI, says, “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”.
MONEI is a payment institution with license number 6911 issued by the Bank of Spain. Its customers’ funds are protected in safe custody accounts with supervised and regulated banks. MONEI is also a member of several work groups within the European Payments Council and the European Central Bank.