The European Central Bank announced that the Eurosystem has selected 61 financial market stakeholders and public sector institutions for the Appia contact group, which will support its work on tokenisation across the Pontes and Appia initiatives. The group will begin work in September 2026, replacing the discontinued Pontes market contact group and New Technologies for Wholesale Settlement Contact Group. Members will advise on Pontes user requirements, risk management and platform development, while contributing expertise to the Appia vision and roadmap for a European tokenised financial ecosystem. Pontes is intended to connect market distributed ledger technology platforms with the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services, enabling tokenised assets to settle in central bank money.