On 21 September the ECB and the national central banks launched Pontes - a bridge between blockchain platforms for securities and central bank money. The first banks and operators can use it immediately, and the full feature set is expected by 2028. The ECB itself said it is preparing to invest a small portion of its own funds in tokenised securities through Pontes.
- Pontes lets wholesale deals in tokenised assets settle in central bank money.
- The first group is 13 banks and institutions and 4 platform operators; the Bundesbank has also joined as a participant.
- The ECB will buy tokenised euro-denominated public and supranational securities with its own funds, settling through Pontes; preparatory work is under way.
The name is Latin for bridges. That is exactly what it is, and nothing more: a bridge between two worlds that until now did not pay each other in the same money.
On one side are the platforms where bonds and other securities live as digital records in a distributed ledger. On the other is the safest payment in Europe - central bank money. Until now those platforms had no access to the central bank's risk-free settlement, and participants in the 2024 tests said access to it was crucial for the wider adoption of the technology.
Why the ECB is buying itself
That is the more interesting of the two documents. A central bank that launches infrastructure and immediately says it will use it with its own money is testing it on its own back. The goal, in the ECB's words, is practical experience as an investor.
For someone in Bulgaria all this is far away. Pontes is for banks and wholesale markets, not for sending money to a friend. But the direction comes from the ECB itself: making central bank money fit for a tokenised future.
The full picture will show around 2028, when it becomes clear how many deals actually go through here and how many still take the old road.