ECB activates Pontes, connecting tokenised wholesale markets to central bank money
ECB activates Pontes, connecting tokenised wholesale markets to central bank money #
The European Central Bank has activated Pontes, a new infrastructure layer that allows eligible financial institutions to settle wholesale transactions in tokenised assets using central bank money rather than privately issued alternatives such as stablecoins or tokenised commercial-bank deposits.
Pontes, Latin for “bridges,” went live on 21 September 2026. ECB President Christine Lagarde announced the go-live at a Eurogroup meeting the preceding Friday. The platform links distributed ledger technology (DLT) market platforms directly to the Eurosystem’s existing TARGET Services, the network of payment and settlement systems that supports euro-area financial markets.
Until now, tokenised trades in bonds, equities, funds and other instruments have had to rely on commercial bank money or stablecoins on the cash side, which carries credit risk that large institutional players have been reluctant to accept. Pontes provides a central-bank-money settlement option, removing that dependency.
Access to Pontes is restricted to eligible financial institutions and market infrastructure providers. It is not a consumer product and is entirely separate from the retail digital euro, which the ECB is targeting for a pilot in the second half of 2027 ahead of a possible 2029 issuance decision.
In a related announcement, the ECB said it has begun preparatory work to invest a portion of its own funds, the portfolio that generates income to cover the bank’s operating costs, in tokenised securities settled through Pontes. The initial focus will be euro-denominated debt issued by euro area governments, regional authorities, agencies and European supranational institutions. The Executive Board will determine the timing and scale once groundwork is complete.
Pontes will launch with a core service set and expand capabilities and operating hours incrementally, with full implementation targeted for 2028, according to the ECB’s press release. The bank said the platform draws on lessons from its 2024 programme of DLT settlement tests, during which participants from both the public and private sectors identified access to a risk-free settlement asset as essential for broader adoption of the technology.
A companion initiative, Appia, is also under development. It is intended to explore how a fully integrated, tokenisation-based European financial ecosystem could ultimately be structured. The ECB has described Pontes as an early operational step rather than a standalone product.
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