ECB Board Member Calls for Central Banks to Issue Programmable Reserves on Blockchain

Isabel Schnabel, an Executive Board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is calling for central banks to issue programmable reserves on a blockchain. In her speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, Schnabel argued that for tokenized finance to reach its full potential, central banks need to go 'on-chain'.

Pontes, an ECB project launching in September 2026, will connect distributed ledgers with the Eurosystem's TARGET services. This will enable participants to settle transactions involving tokenized assets in central-bank money without building separate private settlement assets for every platform.

Schnabel wants the ECB to issue native programmable central-bank reserves on-chain. She believes this will allow banks to place tokenized assets and their cash payments in one programmable environment, enabling atomic settlement. This would mean that both sides can settle together, with the bond changing ownership when the money arrives.