AI on Guard: Feedzai to Protect the Digital Euro in €237M ECB Deal
ECB outsources fraud defence to AI
The European Central Bank has awarded Portuguese firm Feedzai a contract worth up to €237 million to develop artificial intelligence systems that will help protect the upcoming digital euro from fraud. PwC is involved as a subcontractor under a four-year agreement focused on real-time detection of suspicious transactions.
The deal and how it will work
Feedzai and PwC are tasked with building AI models that compare each transaction against an individual user’s behavioral patterns. The idea is to flag anomalies by learning typical spending and payment habits, then highlighting outliers for further review. The contract period is four years and is intended to scale as the digital euro ecosystem grows.
Why this matters for European monetary sovereignty
Cash use is declining, and card payments remain dominated by global networks such as Visa and Mastercard. The ECB sees the digital euro as a strategic tool to increase Europe’s autonomy in payments, especially as U.S. stablecoins and other private solutions gain traction. Robust fraud protection is therefore a prerequisite for public adoption and trust.
Fraud detection as a trust anchor
Fraud prevention is not an optional feature. Public confidence in a central bank digital currency depends on reliable safeguards against scams and illicit activity. Other countries are moving in parallel: for example, India is developing an AI-powered Digital Payments Intelligence Platform to monitor risky transactions in real time. At the same time, private capital is pouring into AI-driven finance products — Riverwood Capital recently invested $180 million in AppZen, which automates expense audits and compliance.
Risks, false positives and user experience
Automated systems raise questions about accuracy and fairness. Many users have already experienced legitimate transactions being flagged as ‘unusual’ by imperfect systems. When scaled across millions of users, false positives could create friction and erode trust unless detection models are finely tuned and appeals processes are user-friendly. Feedzai’s existing footprint, processing trillions in payments annually, suggests they bring significant experience, but large-scale public deployment presents new challenges.
What to watch next
The project illustrates how central banks, regulators and fintechs are racing to shape the future of money. The real test will come when ordinary people start using the digital euro in daily life. Successful fraud detection could underpin broader adoption; failures could threaten the credibility of one of Europe’s biggest monetary innovations in decades.