European Central Bank’s Cipollone outlines opportunities for banks through Pontes and Appia as tokenisation enters early adoption

In a presentation to the Italian Banking Association, European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone reviewed how banks can use Pontes and help design the wider tokenised financial ecosystem through Appia. Pontes has enabled distributed ledger technology (DLT) transactions to settle in euro central bank money since its launch on Sept. 21, 2026. The presentation described tokenisation as moving from experimentation to early adoption, maintaining the Eurosystem’s emphasis on common standards and interoperable networks to avoid adding new fragmentation to European capital markets. For banks, the potential benefits span securities issuance, settlement and collateral management. Smart contracts can automate payments and asset servicing, while exchanging securities and cash together on an all-or-nothing basis can reduce settlement risk. Faster collateral transfers could also reduce liquidity buffer needs. Since March 2026, DLT assets issued in central securities depositories can be mobilised as eligible collateral in Eurosystem credit operations. Infrastructures operating under the European Union’s DLT Pilot Regime can connect to Pontes for settlement in central bank money. User experience and feedback will guide further development of Pontes. Through Appia, banks and other stakeholders are contributing to European standards and the design of the broader ecosystem. From 2027, market participants will be invited to undertake practical work and jointly design the Appia blueprint, which is due to be published by 2028.