In a new strategy presented on Tuesday 31 March, the Eurosystem sets out its ‘roadmap to enhance cross-border payments’, particularly in light of the growing use of ‘tokenisation’ and distributed ledger technology (‘DLT’)-based solutions. It confirms the continued role of central bank money as the benchmark settlement asset, including in programmable environments, but opens the way for complementary digital forms such as tokenised deposits and certain regulated stablecoins.
The strategy is based on four priorities: safeguarding the effectiveness of monetary policy and financial stability; strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy; developing an integrated and competitive payments ecosystem; and supporting the international role of the euro.
Specifically, the objectives include modernising existing infrastructures, notably the T2 system, which is a real-time gross settlement platform for wholesale interbank payments, and developing DLT-compatible settlement solutions and market infrastructures, notably through initiatives such as ‘Pontes’ and ‘Appia’.
The Eurosystem is also positioning the digital euro as a public instrument designed to guarantee universal access to central bank money in an increasingly digitalised environment.
See the strategy: https://aeur.eu/f/lfl (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)