Digital Euro

Is your bank ready?

A quick readiness check

Ask yourself:

• Can your core platforms support 24/7 operations and real time settlement finality?
• Are your workflows and business processes flexible enough to embed CBDC and regulatory requirements directly into payment and wallet operations?
• Do you have a plan to protect customer primacy as new digital currencies and assets emerge?

WHY THIS CAN’T WAIT

• $27.6 trillion
  Stablecoin transfer volume in 2024, already operating at real-time scale.
• 137 countries
  Exploring a CBDC today, representing ~98% of global GDP.
• Always-on money
  24/7 availability and real time settlement are becoming the baseline, not the exception.

What’s really changing

Digital Currency Readiness Scorecard

Time for a self-assessment

Architecture & Integration Readiness

• Fragmented & Legacy-Bound
  (Siloed legacy platforms, point-to-point integrations, batch dependency, manual workarounds, limited resilience. Changes are bolted on rather than integrated.)
• Emerging Modular & Decoupled Infrastructure
  (API-enabled platforms, emerging event-driven patterns, separation of channels and orchestration)
• Adaptive & AI-Ready
  (Cloud-native, composable, event-driven architecture with high automation, resilience, and readiness for programmable money, triggers, and new value propositions.)
• Next steps: Define gaps in real-time processing and orchestration

Regulatory & Compliance Readiness

• Manual & Reactive Compliance
  (Siloed compliance teams, manual evidence gathering, fragmented data)
• Partially Embedded Controls
  (Workflow-level controls, improved traceability, partial automation)
• Embedded & Continuous Compliance
  (Compliance-by-design, automated controls, real-time monitoring, auditability and explainability)
• Next steps: Assess compliance automation and auditability

Real-Time Payments & Settlement Capability

• Batch-Oriented Processing
  (End-of-day posting and reconciliation, limited real-time rails, operational cut-offs dominate. Poor fit for always-on ECB settlement.)
• Partial Real-Time Operations
  (24/7 processing for selected schemes, partial atomicity, manual exception handling. Digital Euro workable, but operationally fragile.)
• Always-On & Atomic Settlement-Ready
  (True always-on processing, end-to-end atomicity, automated reconciliation, readiness for conditional and programmable settlement.)

Liquidity & Treasury Readiness

• Static & End-of-Day Visibility
  (End-of-day reporting, manual liquidity processes and data management, limited ability to react to intraday flows)
• Managed Intraday Liquidity
  (Near-real-time dashboards, alerts and manual interventions)
• Digital-Rail Optimised Treasury
  (Continuous intraday control, automated sweeps and thresholds, predictive modelling)
• Next step: Identify liquidity risks under real-time settlement

Customer Primacy & disintermediation Protection

• Defensive & Compliance-Led
  (Minimal wallet strategy, compliance-driven UX, limited differentiation, high dependency on external providers)
• Competitive Customer Strategy
  (Bank-owned wallet embedded in digital channels, differentiated UX)
• Programmable & Multi-Channel Value Creation
  (Seamless orchestration across channels and products, programmable services, single view of customer, embedded finance and contextual offerings.)
• Next steps: Map customer journeys across new rails

Operating Model & Organisational Readiness (24/7)

• Functionally Siloed, Time-Bound Operations
  (Siloed teams across IT, operations, risk and compliance; hand-offs dominate; accountability fragmented by function. Limited out-of-hours coverage and high operational risk when Digital Euro rails operate continuously.)
• Partially Aligned, Extended Operations
  (Some product- or journey-aligned teams exist, supported by shared service functions. Extended hours achieved through on-call models and coordination layers. Digital Euro can be supported, but scalability and resilience depend heavily on people and process.)
• Value-Stream & Domain-Aligned 24/7 Operations
  (Product- and platform-aligned teams own build, run, risk and change for their domains. Event-driven operations, automated controls, and AI-assisted monitoring enable scalable, always-on activity without proportional increases in headcount.)
• Next steps: Revisit operating assumptions

Where banks lag. Across the industry, three gaps appear repeatedly:

• Batch systems vs. real-time money
  Legacy platforms weren’t built for instant settlement or continuous operations.
  AI-accelerated legacy modernisation with Sapient Slingshot
• Eroding customer primacy
  New rails bypass banks that don’t redesign wallets and services.
  Customer-centric wallet and digital currency services
• Compliance as an afterthought
  Manual controls can’t keep up with programmable, multi-rail finance.
  Agentic compliance orchestration with Sapient Bodhi

CBDC Integration Journey

• Foundation
  Assess technology, compliance, and operating readiness.
  Decision: Where are the critical gaps?
• Modernise
  Transform architecture and integrate digital currency rails into core platforms and workflows.
  Decision: Can we operate safely in real time?
• Pilot
  Run controlled wholesale and retail CBDC and digital currency use cases.
• Scale
  Operationalise across products, regions, and customers.
  Decision: Are we ready to scale?

Your next step