ECB launches Pontes platform to settle tokenised assets in central bank money for first time

From the Newshound archive · first published 21 September 2026.

The European Central Bank has unveiled Pontes, a platform enabling wholesale tokenised-asset transactions — covering digital forms of stocks, bonds and other instruments — to settle directly against central bank reserves, removing the credit risk that had prevented blockchain technology from gaining a foothold in mainstream finance. Thirteen major institutions, among them Deutsche Bank, Santander and Société Générale, are already onboarded and ready to transact. The ECB has said it plans to use the platform itself, intending to put some of its own capital into tokenised securities settled through Pontes.

Pontes addresses a longstanding obstacle: previously, tokenised trades could only settle against commercial bank money or stablecoins, both of which carry credit risk that large institutions were unwilling to accept.