The European Central Bank said it had picked a Portuguese startup focussed on artificial intelligence to help prevent fraud in its planned digital euro currency.
The contract with Feedzai, worth up to €237.3m, is one of several announced by the ECB to advance a project that it sees as key for the euro zone's financial autonomy from the US.
Under it, Feedzai and its subcontractor PwC will provide an AI model for scoring digital euro payments by their fraud risk, based on any deviation from a customer's typical behaviour, interactions and history.
This is aimed at helping payment service providers decide whether to approve a transaction in digital euros, essentially an exchange between electronic wallets backed by the central bank.
The four-year agreement, with an option to extend it to 15 years, has an estimated value of €79.1m and a cap at €237.3m.
Four further digital euro contracts worth between €27.6m and €220.7m were awarded to other companies, including French IT consulting firm Capgemini.
Under such framework agreements, the ECB will not pay contractors until the project starts.
The central bank is still awaiting legislative approval for its digital euro, which it has pitched as a response to Visa and Mastercard's dominance and to US President Donald Trump's promotion of stablecoins pegged to the dollar.
It hopes to receive the go-ahead around the middle of next year, with a view to launching the digital currency in 2029.
Registered in Portugal, Feedzai says it processes $8 trillion worth of payments every year for clients including Portuguese bank Novobanco and Abu Dhabi's Wio Bank.
It also announced $75m in funding from Lince Capital, Iberis Capital and Explorer Investments among others.
