Central Bank of Ireland Deputy Governor Vasileios Madouros outlined plans for focused industry sprints on tokenised finance and a Tokenisation Access Point during remarks at the European Capital Markets Institute’s annual conference. The initiatives will address specific aspects of tokenisation and give market participants a clearer route to discuss how existing rules apply. He reiterated the bank’s earlier emphasis on central bank money and interoperability as foundations for tokenisation, which could accelerate settlement, reduce counterparty exposure and help overcome fragmentation in European capital markets. Safe scaling requires settlement in central bank money, supported by Eurosystem initiatives Pontes and Appia. Regulation should follow the principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulatory outcome” while avoiding premature prescription. Private firms should lead the development of interoperable tokenised deposits across Europe, while sovereign and supranational issuers could encourage private issuance by issuing tokenised bonds that settle on Pontes.
Madouros also called for stronger foundations for nonbank finance as its role in European capital market financing expands. Surveillance should increasingly assess whether core markets can maintain financing during shocks, complementing existing assessments of banks’ capacity to sustain lending under stress. Regulatory priorities include implementing agreed Financial Stability Board recommendations on open-ended funds and nonbank leverage that Europe has not yet fully applied. Potential improvements to crisis management tools include powers to address failures of nonbank payment providers and exploring the tradeoffs associated with providing liquidity to nonbanks.