AI, Innovative Payments and CBDCs: Theoretical and Practical Implications for Instruments, Processes, Behaviors and Risks Amid a Dynamic Regulatory Evolution

Dear Colleagues,

The global financial ecosystem is undergoing a profound transformation driven by the rapid evolution of digital technologies, artificial intelligence and programmable financial infrastructures. Payment systems, in particular, are experiencing a structural shift away from traditional banking architectures toward increasingly decentralized, automated and interoperable models.

The rise in digital banking has challenged conventional notions of money, payments and financial intermediation, while central banks worldwide are actively exploring and piloting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as strategic responses to the digitalization of finance. In this context, the digital euro—the retail CBDC proposed by the European Central Bank—represents a landmark initiative with far-reaching implications for monetary sovereignty, financial inclusion and the future of European banking. Following the conclusion of the ECB's preparation phase in late 2025, the project has advanced toward technical readiness, with the proposed regulation on the establishment of the digital euro expected to be adopted by the EU co-legislators in the course of 2026 and a potential first issuance envisaged for 2029. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence, smart contracts, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and machine-to-machine interactions are fostering the emergence of "agentic payments"—autonomous or semi-autonomous payment systems capable of executing transactions with limited or no direct human intervention—thereby reshaping customer behaviors and technology-adoption patterns.

These dynamics are unfolding against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. In the European Union, the framework governing retail payments—long anchored in the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), with its open-banking and strong-customer-authentication provisions—is being comprehensively redesigned by the forthcoming Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3) and the directly applicable Payment Services Regulation (PSR), which will repeal and replace both PSD2 and the E-Money Directive, with renewed emphasis on fraud prevention, consumer protection, supervisory harmonization and the consolidation of open banking. This reform is complemented by a broader body of legislation that is collectively reshaping digital finance: the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) for crypto-assets and stablecoins; the Instant Payments Regulation for real-time, account-to-account transfers; the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for ICT risk management and operational resilience; the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) for the governance of AI-enabled—and increasingly agentic—financial services and the proposed Framework for Financial Data Access (FiDA), which extends the open-banking paradigm toward open finance. Together, these instruments introduce new standards with which banks and other financial institutions must comply, raising fresh challenges for the stability of the system from both macro- and microprudential perspectives and for customer protection.

These developments are reshaping the competitive landscape of banking and payments while simultaneously raising significant economic, technological, legal, regulatory, ethical and governance challenges. Concerns related to cybersecurity, privacy, financial inclusion, customer protection, interoperability, monetary sovereignty and systemic stability are becoming increasingly central to both academic debate and policymaking agendas.

In this rapidly evolving context, this Special Issue aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars, policymakers, regulators and practitioners interested in exploring the future of payments and digital banking ecosystems shaped by crypto-assets, CBDCs and AI-enabled payment infrastructures. We welcome original theoretical and empirical contributions addressing emerging trends, technological innovations, regulatory developments and strategic implications for the financial sector.

This Special Issue seeks to investigate the ongoing transformation of payment systems and digital banking ecosystems driven by crypto-assets, CBDCs, decentralized finance and AI-enabled autonomous payment infrastructures. It aims to foster interdisciplinary research on the technological, economic, financial, legal and regulatory implications of next-generation payment systems and programmable money. Particular attention will be devoted to the interaction between traditional banking systems and emerging digital financial infrastructures, as well as to the opportunities and risks associated with automation, tokenization and intelligent financial agents. The topic is fully aligned with the scope of FinTech, as it addresses key issues related to financial innovation, digital finance, banking transformation, financial technologies and emerging payment ecosystems.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Digital payment systems;
• Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs);
• Retail and wholesale CBDCs;
• Digital Euro: Design, adoption and policy implications;
• Decentralized finance (DeFi) and banking;
• AI-driven and agentic payments;
• Smart contracts and programmable money;
• Account-to-account payments and IoT finance;
• Digital banking transformation;
• The evolving EU payments framework: From PSD2 to PSD3 and the PSR;
• Crypto-asset regulation (MiCA) and stablecoins;
• Operational resilience and ICT risk management (DORA);
• AI governance in finance and the Artificial Intelligence Act;
• Open finance and the Framework for Financial Data Access (FiDA);
• Financial regulation and digital payments;
• Cybersecurity and fraud prevention;
• Privacy and data governance in digital finance;
• Customer behavior and payment systems adoption;
• Financial inclusion and digital currencies;
• Interoperability between traditional and digital finance;
• Customer protection in FinTech ecosystems;
• Web 3.0: financial infrastructures, DeFi and tokenization.

Dr. Francesco Manta
Prof. Dr. Valeria Stefanelli
Guest Editors

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