www.ecb.europa.eu ©
ECB-CONFIDENTIAL
Central banks
on-chain 1
The Future of Money
Conference in celebration of Charles Goodhart
Bank of England, London, 1 October 2026
Isabel Schnabel
Member of the Executive Board
of the ECB
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 2
Tokenisation allows for faster, safer and smarter settlement
Programmability
Settlement can be made conditional
on set of rules
executed automatically
Atomicity
Legs of a transaction
settle together
or not at all
Tokenisation
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 3
Tokenisation could foster integration of financial infrastructures in Europe
Overview of the European Securities Infrastructure
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 4
Modern fiat monetary systems are built on a two-tier structure
Public
settlement assets
Private
settlement assets
Wholesale central bank money
1:11:1
Bank deposit
(Bank A)
Bank deposit
(Bank B)
Payer and payee
Trusted
Safe
Scalable
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
-1.00
-0.75
-0.50
-0.25
0.00
Jan-20 Jul-20 Feb-21 Aug-21
Repo rate ECB total assets % GDP (RHS) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Sep-1907 Oct-1907 Nov-1907 Dec-1907 Jan-1908
24 October 1907 5
Modern central banks can expand liquidity elastically to counter financial stress
Sources: Federal Reserve, New York Times, Commercial and Financial Chronicle (various issues).
Notes: The call money interest rate is the rate of interest on stock collateral offered at the New York
Stock Exchange.
(% per annum)
Panic of 1907:
call money interest rate
Sources: Bloomberg, ECB data portal, ECB calculations.
Notes: ECB total assets are calculated as a percentage of euro area GDP and the repo rate is
shown as a 7-day moving average.
COVID-19 pandemic:
repo rate and ECB total assets
(LHS: % per annum; RHS: % of GDP)
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 6
ECB aims to preserve anchor role of central bank money in a digitalised world
Public
settlement assets
Retail CBDC Wholesale
CBDC
Tokenised
deposits Stablecoins
Private
settlement assets
Tokenised
traditional assets
Unbacked
crypto-
assets
Bitcoin,
Ether, etc.
Tokenised
financial assets
(bonds, equities, etc.)
Settlement Assets
Assets or claims on assets that a
beneficiary accepts for the final
settlement of an obligation
Trading or Investment
Assets
A security or financial instrument held for
investment, income generation, hedging,
or speculation
Tokenised
non-financial
assets
Digital euro
project
Pontes and
Appia projects
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
©
1. Direct issuance 2. Bridging / synchronisation 3. Private intermediary
Central bank
Programmable platform
with tokenised reserves
Central
bank
RTGS
Programmable
platform
trigger
hash-link
Reserves remain
non-tokenised
Central bank
Private intermediary
tokenises reserves
Settlement tokens fully backed
by central bank reserves
Central banks could modernise monetary policy implementation by going on-chain
Reserves are natively
tokenised
Interoperability layer
connects
RTGS to DLT platform
Reserves remain off-chain,
token is private claim
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 8
Pontes combines bridge solution with Eurosystem DLT to offer tokenised CB money
Central bank money
Eurosystem DLT
Tokenised central bank money
for settlement of
DLT-based transactions
Market DLT networks for
tokenised securities,
tokenised deposits,
stablecoins etc.
Launched on 21 September 2026, offering dual settlement model via TARGET2 or DLT
Planned enhancements: 24/7 availability and decentralised programmability
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 9
Tokenised system can replicate two-tier structure if CB money is provided on-chain
Public
settlement assets
Private
settlement assets
Tokenised wholesale central bank money
1:11:1
Tokenised
bank deposit
(Bank A)
Tokenised
bank deposit
(Bank B)
Payer and payee
Trusted
Safe
Scalable
Rubric
www.ecb.europa.eu
© 10
Eurosystem’s project Appia explores a range of tokenised architectures
Eurosystem DLT
Market DLTs
Single unified
ledger
Interconnected
networks
Eurosystem DLT
Market DLTs
Multiple
shared ledgers
Single shared DLT
Wholesale
central bank
money
Financial assets
(securities,
deposits,
stablecoins etc.)
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Thank you very much for your attention! 11