The European Central Bank has published a summary of Governing Council decisions taken in August and September, led by amendments to the Eurosystem monetary policy framework and collateral valuation haircuts that will apply from Nov. 30, 2026. The package also covers tokenised asset settlement, payment system oversight, instant-payment interlinking and several changes to banking supervision processes. In market infrastructure, the ECB approved the legal framework for Pontes, an interim production-grade service that launched on Sept. 21 to settle wholesale tokenised asset transactions in central bank money. It designated the Visa Europe Payment System as systemically important, bringing it under Eurosystem oversight with the ECB as lead overseer, and initiated an assessment of whether TARGET Instant Payment Settlement could be linked with Brazil’s Pix system. The ECB also approved the European System of Central Banks’ response to the European Commission’s review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and adopted supervisory delegation frameworks for group recovery plans, credit-risk rating systems and internal models. Separate updates covered digital euro pilot participation, accessibility testing planned for 2027, technical statistical reporting amendments and data protection responsibilities between the ECB and national supervisors.
European Central Bank reports monetary policy framework amendments and advances payments infrastructure initiatives
The European Central Bank reported amendments to the Eurosystem monetary policy framework and collateral haircuts that will apply from Nov. 30, 2026. It also advanced Pontes for tokenised asset settlement, designated Visa Europe’s payment system as systemically important and began assessing a link between TIPS and Brazil’s Pix. Further decisions addressed MiCAR, digital euro testing and supervisory processes.