ECB Launches Pontes for Tokenized Asset Settlement
The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched Pontes, a new settlement service that connects regulated financial market platforms with central bank money for transactions involving tokenized assets. The system allows participating institutions to settle the cash side of tokenized trades without transferring the underlying assets onto an ECB-operated blockchain.
Pontes is designed to provide regulated tokenized markets with access to central bank settlement while allowing the underlying assets to remain on existing market-operated distributed ledgers. It connects distributed ledger technology platforms operated by financial market participants with TARGET Services, the Eurosystem infrastructure used for large-value payments and securities settlement.
The service follows €1.6 billion in experiments conducted between May and November 2024. The program tested three central bank solutions across securities and payment-related use cases involving digital bonds, automated wholesale payments, and transactions involving multiple currencies.