Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) offered by the Eurosystem.
What is Pontes?
Pontes is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) solution offered by the Eurosystem, that links market DLT platforms and TARGET Services to settle transactions in Central Bank Money. The project builds on the successful results of the exploratory work on new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement.
The Eurosystem will launch a pilot for Pontes by the third quarter of 2026.
Why Pontes?
- To support market needs and innovation.
- To reserve the pivotal role of central bank money in the financial system as the safest means of settlement.
- To maintain the Eurosystem’s relevance amid rapid technological and financial change.
- To move further towards a digital capital markets union and savings and investments union in Europe.
How will Pontes work?
Pontes will combine the features of the three interoperability solutions used during the exploratory work. It will operate as a dual-settlement model:
- participants will be able to settle transactions on the Eurosystem DLT platform with cash tokens, or
- in T2, the Eurosystem’s real-time gross settlement system.
The settlement of the cash leg of transactions will ultimately be carried out once the corresponding settlement is completed in T2.
Pontes will use a reliable interoperability mechanism, enabling Delivery-VersusPayment. The solution also supports enhanced automation through end-to-end processing and seamless interaction with T2.
How to participate
The Eurosystem is finalising the eligibility criteria for assets, market participants and market DLT operators for the pilot phase.