www.ecb.europa.eu ©
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Piero Cipollone
Member of the Executive Board of the ECB23 September 2026
The digitalisation of
money, payments and
finance
Fondazione ResPublica
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
The digital transformation of payments and finance
Payments and finance are changing, requiring a forward-looking approach
to support the development of an integrated, innovative and competitive
European market for digital payments and finance.
Driven by:
Digitalisation of payments
Emergence of new technologies, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT)
Heightened focus on reducing dependencies and strengthening resilience 2
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Provide a steer to:
Ensure an integrated, future-oriented
payments landscape
Ensure effectiveness of monetary
policy and financial stability
Safeguard continuity and smooth
operation of the payment system
Align policies and initiatives under a
holistic vision
Our comprehensive payments strategy: strategic aims 3
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Wholesale
payments
Our comprehensive payments strategy: use cases
Business-to-
business
payments
Cross-
border
payments
Focus of this presentation 4
Retail
payments
New ways of supplying central bank money:
Digital euro
Tokenised central
bank money
(Pontes & Appia)
www.ecb.europa.eu © 5
Taxonomy of digital settlement assets
Public
settlement assets
Commercial
bank money:
Tokenised
deposits
Crypto-assets backed by
other assets to limit their
price fluctuation:
Stablecoins
Private
settlement assets
Settlement Assets
Assets or claims on assets that a
beneficiary accepts for the final
settlement of an obligation
Central bank money
for day-to-day (retail)
digital transactions:
Digital euro
Central bank money
for wholesale digital
transactions:
Pontes & Appia
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Digital euro: a digital form of cash for day-to-day payments
Available across the euro area,
online and offline
Digital payments on the rise*
The digital euro: a digital form of cash
* Study on the payment habits of consumers in the euro area (SPACE), ECB,
December 2024.
** As a proportion of all day-to-day payments in the euro area, in numbers
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2019 2022 2024
Payments in shops**
Cash Card Mobil Other
Would complement cash
Would offer freedom of
choice between cash and
digital payments 6
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
EU-licensed payment service providers (PSPs) will be at the core of
digital euro distribution
• Critical role for banks: banks will play a key role in digital
euro distribution.
• Preserving customer relationships: customers will be
able to access the digital euro through their trusted banking
partners.
• Robust safeguards: holding limits, no remuneration,
(de)funding features and no holdings for businesses.
• Fair compensation: banks will be compensated for their
efforts in distributing digital euro.
• Synergies: 1) standardised acceptance network; and 2)
co-badging.
Bank/PSP
Bank/PSPEnd users
Merchants
Financial stability and competitiveness as key pillars of the digital euro 7
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Digital euro: a public infrastructure for digital payments
• Establishes a European acceptance infrastructure
with standards open to private solutions
• Offers a platform for innovation based on which
private providers can build value-added services
Digital euro
Domestic solutions adopt digital euro standards and
achieve pan-European reach without heavy investment
Domestic and regional solutions 8
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Digital euro: where we stand 9
Investigation
phase
Oct 2021 – Oct 2023
Concept definition,
technical exploration
and design proposal
Current phase
Nov 2025 - ongoing
Continued preparation follows a flexible and
modular approach.
Focus on:
• Advancing technical readiness
• Deepening market engagement
• Supporting the legislative process
The digital euro pilot will run for 12 months,
starting in the second half of 2027.
Preparation
phase
Nov 2023 – Oct 2025
Preparation through
testing and
experimentation
The ECB aims to be ready for a potential first issuance of the digital euro during 2029. Preparing for the digital
euro pilot does not pre-empt any decision to issue the digital euro. The ECB will only take a decision on whether to
issue the digital euro once the EU co-legislators adopt the digital euro Regulation.
www.ecb.europa.eu © www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Clearing
banks and
brokers
Tokenisation can deliver efficiency gains, drive innovation
in financial services and support integrated European capital markets
Current capital markets are highly complex and fragmented, mainly due to:
• Separate, independent ledgers for bookkeeping across market participants
• Fragmented regulatory framework for custody, asset servicing and tax-related processes
• Non-interoperable technological ecosystems in each country, creating siloed pools of asset liquidity
Issuers
Custodians
DLT ecosystem with shared and interoperable ledgers
Custodians
Issuers
Investor
CCP
CCPs
Exchange
Exchanges
Issuer A
CSD A
Issuer B
Issuer C
CSD B
CSD C
Local
custodian
Local
custodian
Local
custodian
Global
custodian
Investor
T2S
Current ecosystem 10
CSDs
CSDs
Clearing
banks and
brokers
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Central bank money provides a risk-free settlement anchor to digital finance
Eurosystem policy response: tokenised central bank money
Enables expansion of
digital asset market
Safe settlement
asset
Standards
Finality
Addresses the limited
scalability of
stablecoins due to…
100% reserve
backing
Asset scarcity
Bank dis-
intermediation
effects
Supports an integrated
market for digital
assets
Fungibility
Liquidity 11
Integrates tokenised
deposits into the
monetary system
Compliance with
financial regulation
Mitigates systemic
risks
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Pontes Appia
Appia supports the development
of a future-ready, innovative and
integrated tokenised ecosystem
in a public-private partnership
Analysis, standardisation,
longer-term design – vision to
be documented in a Blueprint
in 2028
Pontes & Appia will
enable safe, efficient
settlement in central
bank money and support
an integrated European
market for digital assets
from the outset
&
A tokenised euro for wholesale transactions: Pontes & Appia
Pontes provides the bridge
between DLT platforms and
TARGET Services, so that DLT
transactions can be settled in
central bank money
Launched on 21 September
2026, will be gradually
enhanced over the next two
years 12
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Cross-border interlinking: our initiatives in line with G20 objectives
GLOBAL CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS
The ECB is committed to improving cross-border payments globally by:
• exploring interlinking TIPS with fast payments systems outside Europe
through bilateral links and multilateral networks
• participating in Project Agorá, a public-private collaboration led by the
Bank for International Settlements (BIS), to test a multi-currency
shared platform
MULTI-CURRENCY SETTLEMENT
Leveraging the multi-currency feature of the Eurosystem’s instant
payments settlement service (TIPS) to settle funds end to end instantly in
central bank money, in TIPS hosted currencies. 13
www.ecb.europa.eu ©
Thank you
• The Eurosystem’s comprehensive payments
strategy
Digital euro:
• Dedicated webpage
• FAQs
• Latest progress report
• Fit in the payment ecosystem
• Key findings on innovation potential
• User research report by Ipsos
Settlement of DLT-based transactions:
• Tokenisation and DLT
• Pontes
• Appia
• Pontes launch
Cross-border payments
• Dedicated webpage