Your company won't hold digital euro, so get your linked account and daily sweep ready now

Under the ECB's design, businesses would not keep digital euro. The planned holding limit for merchants is zero. Each digital euro payment you receive is moved to a linked bank account (the "waterfall"). Payments you send, such as refunds, are funded from that same account (the "reverse waterfall"). The ECB's draft scheme rulebook makes both functions mandatory for businesses for online payments.

This is still a proposal, not adopted law. The Commission's 2023 proposal sets out the waterfall tools. Council negotiators have added that merchants may collect receipts during the business day and sweep them once at the end of it, much like emptying a till. The final timing rule depends on the regulation that Parliament and Council still have to agree.

For treasurers, the job is clear. Decide which bank account will be linked. Check that cash pooling, reconciliation and liquidity forecasts can handle a new inflow that may land as one daily sweep instead of many single payments. And keep enough funds in the linked account for refunds: under the draft rulebook, a payment without sufficient funds is not processed.