The European Central Bank launched Pontes on September 21, a new Eurosystem facility that settles wholesale transactions in tokenised assets using central bank money — the first initiative under the ECB's strategic programme to modernise central bank money for a tokenised financial ecosystem.
Four distributed ledger technology operators went live at launch: Axiology, Cashlink, Deutsche Börse's Clearstream, and bank-backed SWIAT. Thirteen market participants are onboarded alongside them, including Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, the European Investment Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations; Germany's Deutsche Bundesbank is also participating, in a market-participant capacity rather than as an operator.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said the launch reflects the Eurosystem's effort "to enable a more integrated, innovative and resilient European financial market in the digital age." Executive Board member Piero Cipollone framed Pontes as bringing "the stability and trust of central bank money to the European tokenised finance ecosystem."
Initial core services are live immediately, with enhanced features and extended operating hours to be phased in; the ECB expects full implementation by 2028. Related experimentation continues under the Eurosystem's separate Appia programme.
Alongside the launch, the ECB announced it will invest a portion of its own non-monetary-policy funds in tokenised securities, settling those investments through Pontes, to build institutional expertise across the full investment lifecycle. The bank described the allocation as "a small portion" of its funds, targeting euro-denominated securities from euro area governments, regional governments, agencies, and European supranational institutions. Preparatory work has begun; the Executive Board will set the operational details and timing once that concludes.
No investment amount or start date has been disclosed.