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For years, European banks experimented quietly with blockchain, digital assets, and tokenized money.
Most of those experiments failed, not because the technology didn’t work, but because money only works when everyone agrees to use the same version of it.
Now, nine of Europe’s largest banks are attempting something far more ambitious: issuing one shared Euro-backed stablecoin, governed collectively, regulated under MiCA, and designed to operate across borders, institutions, and eventually blockchains.
In a recent video interview with Chiara Munaretto (Stablecoin Insider Managing Partner), Vid Hribar (Strategic Partnership and Ecosystem Lead at Raiffeisen Bank International) explained why this consortium exists, what nearly killed it, and why Europe sees bank-issued stablecoins as critical financial infrastructure, not a crypto experiment.
From “Can We Build This?” to “Why This Doesn’t Work”
Raiffeisen’s journey into digital money began early around 2017–2018 through internal research and prototypes. Like many banks, RBI initially tried to go it alone.
The result was RBI Coin: a proprietary blockchain-based payment solution for cross-border settlements between Austria and Eastern Europe.
Technically, it worked.
Strategically, it failed.
“We moved from a world of ‘can we build this?’ to ‘how do we govern this?’ The tech is the easy part now.”
The problem was not speed or cost. It was fragmentation.
A payment instrument that only works inside one bank, even a large one, is not money. It is a closed loop.
The real “aha moment” came when ING approached RBI with a simple realization:
If every bank issues its own stablecoin, nothing interoperates.
Money must move between competitors to have value.
Why One Euro Stablecoin Beats Nine
The consortium which includes banks such as UniCredit, SEB, and CaixaBank formed around a single principle:
Liquidity and interoperability matter more than branding.
“If every bank issues its own stablecoin, you end up with walled gardens. A stablecoin only works if it’s widely accepted and easily exchangeable.”
By issuing one shared Euro stablecoin, the banks:
- Pool liquidity instead of fragmenting it
- Create a common technical and legal standard
- Make the asset immediately usable for payments, treasury, and DeFi
This is not a marketing partnership. It is shared monetary infrastructure.
The Hardest Part Wasn’t Technology, It Was Governance
The most revealing detail from the interview was this:
The banks worked on this quietly for nearly three years before announcing anything publicly.
Why?
Governance.
“The hardest part was getting nine competitors to agree on a single legal entity in Amsterdam that handles the minting and burning of a shared asset.”
Key challenges included:
- Aligning nine compliance departments
- Designing shared control over issuance and redemption
- Agreeing on cost- and revenue-sharing models
- Selecting a neutral jurisdiction
The solution was a consortium entity based in the Netherlands, supervised by the Dutch Central Bank, and designed to comply fully with MiCA.
The Bank Advantage: Distribution Is Already Solved
One of the most strategic parts of the interview was Hribar’s comparison between banks and fintech stablecoin issuers.
Fintechs like Circle or Tether face a structural problem: distribution.
To reach users, they must:
- Pay exchanges
- Incentivize wallets
- Compete for liquidity
Banks don’t.
“We already have the corporate treasurers. We already have the retail banking apps. We don’t need to pay for distribution, we are the distribution.”
This gives bank-issued stablecoins a unique advantage under MiCA, especially in Europe, where regulation favors licensed institutions.
The Revenue Model (And Why It Matters Under MiCA)
MiCA prohibits paying interest to stablecoin holders, but it does not prohibit issuers from earning interest on reserves.
That distinction matters.
The consortium structure allows:
- Interest income on Euro reserves
- Shared revenue across member banks
- Sustainable economics without yield promises to users
This is a critical difference between regulated bank stablecoins and DeFi-native designs.
Stablecoin vs. CBDC: Not a Fight, a Division of Labor
Hribar is explicit: this project is not competing with the ECB’s Digital Euro.
It complements it.
“The Digital Euro is for public use like digital cash. The bank stablecoin is for industrial use.”
That includes:
- Programmable payments
- Escrow and conditional settlement
- Supply chain automation
- Machine-to-machine (M2M) payments
These are areas where central banks do not want to operate directly.
Strategic Autonomy: Europe’s Quiet Defensive Move
One statement in the interview stands out:
Over 90% of global stablecoins are USD-denominated.
From a European policy perspective, that is a vulnerability.
This Euro stablecoin is framed as:
- A sovereignty play
- A liquidity defense mechanism
- A way to keep Euro settlement relevant in a programmable economy
It is not anti-crypto. It is pro-European monetary autonomy.
Public vs. Private Blockchains: A Pragmatic Approach
While banks prefer permissioned environments for compliance and risk control, Hribar acknowledges reality:
“Liquidity is on public blockchains.”
As a result, the stablecoin is being designed to:
- Launch in controlled, permissioned settings
- Eventually bridge to public chains like Ethereum or Layer-2 networks
This hybrid approach reflects where institutional finance is actually heading—not ideology, but pragmatism.
What Happens Next: Consolidation, Not Proliferation
Hribar does not believe Europe will support dozens of Euro stablecoins.
“The market won’t have 50 Euro stablecoins. It will consolidate into three or four winners.”
This consortium aims to be the primary one.
- Legal entity: established
- Regulator: Dutch Central Bank
- Target launch: mid-2026
The Bigger Picture: Upgrading Europe’s Financial Plumbing
This is not “crypto for crypto’s sake.”
It is the modernization of:
- Settlement
- Liquidity
- Monetary coordination
Or as Hribar puts it:
“This is about upgrading the financial plumbing of Europe.”
If successful, this project may define what bank-issued stablecoins look like globally, not as speculative assets, but as invisible infrastructure powering the next generation of finance.
