In an opening speech at an ECB conference, President Christine Lagarde set out the Eurosystem’s strategy for adapting payments and settlement to tokenisation, digitalisation and growing concerns over control of financial infrastructure. The strategy has three pillars: enabling settlement of tokenised wholesale transactions in central bank money, advancing the digital euro in retail payments, and expanding cross-border instant payments through links between European and foreign payment systems. For wholesale markets, Lagarde argued that tokenisation could reduce the fragmentation and cost created by Europe’s multiple securities record-keeping systems, but only if market participants can settle in central bank money rather than in private instruments. She said the Eurosystem’s Pontes project will settle tokenised transactions in central bank money in the course of this year, while the Appia project is developing with the market a blueprint for a single European market in tokenised finance. For retail payments, she presented the digital euro as both a way to preserve access to public money as payments move online and a route to a pan-European payment instrument, citing Europe’s dependence on international card schemes, which account for more than 60% of card payments, and the absence of a national card scheme in 13 of 21 euro area countries. On cross-border payments, Lagarde said the Eurosystem is interlinking its TIPS instant payment system with other networks so European payments can reach more countries in seconds. A link to India’s Unified Payments Interface is being built, while connections to the Nexus Global Payments network in South-East Asia and Switzerland’s SIC IP system are in advanced stages of analysis. She also said the broader strategy will require private-sector investment and shared technical standards, alongside a common legal framework for digital assets to avoid recreating fragmentation through diverging national regimes.
European Central Bank2026-06-15
European Central Bank sets out Eurosystem strategy for tokenised finance digital euro and cross-border payments
In a conference speech, ECB President Christine Lagarde outlined the Eurosystem’s strategy for tokenised finance, the digital euro and cross-border payments. It includes using central bank money for tokenised wholesale settlement through Pontes and Appia, and linking TIPS with foreign instant payment systems including India’s Unified Payments Interface. Lagarde also called for shared market standards and a common legal framework for digital assets.