News

Getting ready to operate Taler in Germany

For the past three years, the NGI Taler project has worked towards the goal making Taler legally availabe in the EU as an online payment system for everyday use. Today we can share that Taler Operations AG is being founded in Bochum. The new German company is going to operate Taler in Euro, enabling payments with Taler first in Germany, then in the Euro-zone. The next steps towards that goal is to apply to BaFin, to BaFin, Germany's financial supervisory authority, for a license as an e-money issuer.

This post explains why this company is needed, what changed in the NGI TALER consortium, and how citizens who want to see Taler succeed can help, including as investors.

Why Taler needs a regulated operator

Taler is a payment system, not a currency, but usable for any currency. At its core, it issues bearer tokens to represent value, like coins, and this renders Taler as electronic money which falls under EU regulation: Any institution that issues electronic money (EMI) for Euros must be a bank or acquire a dedicated license.

In the original plan of the NGI TALER project, the Bochum based GLS Bank took on the the role of the e-money issuer for Taler, and worked towards the deployment of the Taler payment system in Germany with support from the other members from the NGI TALER consortium. However, in January 2026 GLS made the decision to no pursue this role further, for reasons unrelated to Taler as presented in their statement (gls.de/taler). Since then, GLS and the other members of the NGI TALER consortium worked out the best way forward to achieve the project's goal to make Taler available in the Euro-zone.

The outcome is the announcement today. The new componay Taler Operations AG will be set up to apply for an e-money licence and take over the role orinally intended for GLS (who will remain a consortium member in a supporting role).

We regret that the original plan did not work out. Integrating a new kind of payment system into an existing bank’s processes, compliance framework and IT is hard, and banks have to set priorities. We are grateful to GLS for its work in the project and for staying involved. And we also think the new arrangement has a real advantage: the institution operating Taler in Euro will be focused entirely on Taler, instead of fitting it into a larger bank’s product portfolio.

What Taler Operations AG will do

Legal status:
Taler Operations AG is a German stock corporation in formation, seated in Bochum, and a subsidiary of Taler Systems SA (Luxembourg).
Purpose:
Operating a GNU Taler exchange in Germany, for the Euro, so that citizens can pay with Taler and merchants can accept it.
Reach:
After establishing legal operations in Germany, Taler Operations AG aims to provide services across the whole Euro area, utilizing the passporting mechanism of the EU single-market.
Timing:
Operations can only begin once BaFin has granted the authorisation. A launch date will be announced after that happens.
Next steps:
  • An application to BaFin for authorisation as an electronic money insitution (EMI).
  • Securing funding via instestors, see below, to become operable.

We stress that GNU Taler is and stays free software. The licensed company operates a service; Taler, the protocol suite, and its reference implementation GNU Taler remain open and free.

What this means for the community

The NGI TALER project continues: development, security reviews, integrations from the open calls, and the Swiss deployment all go on as before. The change concerns who will operate the Taler payment system in Euro in Germany, but not the direction of the project. We will report on the progress of the license application.

If you want to help, you can tell merchants and organisations you care about that Taler is coming. You can try the Taler wallet with the demo site and report issues. You can also contribute to the software.

And you can invest into Taler Operations AG:

For investors

Getting an e-money licence takes capital. The law sets minimum own funds for EMIs, and BaFin also expects a credible business plan, staffing, compliance and IT security before granting authorisation. Taler Operations AG is therefore raising capital now.

We are looking for investors who:

  • want a privacy-preserving, free-software payment system to become legally available in Germany and the Euro area;
  • understand that this is a regulated infrastructure business with a licensing phase before revenue; and
  • are able to invest at least €50,000.

We are especially interested in investors who share the values behind Taler: privacy for buyers, transparency for taxable income, no lock-in, and payments as public-interest infrastructure.

If you’d like to receive information about the investment, please write to invest@taler-systems.com.