---
title: "Pontes"
url: "https://mahouse.world/glossary/pontes"
type: "glossary term"
author: "Ihor Vlasov"
reviewed: "2026-09-30"
published: "2026-09-25"
---

# Pontes

Pontes is the Eurosystem's service for settling wholesale transactions in tokenised assets in central bank money. It links market distributed-ledger (DLT) platforms with TARGET Services, so that the cash leg of a trade recorded on a DLT platform settles in euro at the central bank, with finality in T2. It launched on 21 September 2026.

**Also known as:** Eurosystem Pontes, Pontes settlement solution, Eurosystem DLT settlement solution

## Key facts

- **Launched:** 21 September 2026, as the first initiative of the Eurosystem's strategy for tokenised finance; further features and longer operating hours are to be added gradually, with full implementation expected by 2028
- **Origin:** the Eurosystem's exploratory work between May and November 2024, with 64 market participants and more than 50 trials, in which participants said access to a risk-free settlement asset was crucial
- **Design:** a dual settlement model — cash tokens on a Eurosystem DLT platform, or settlement in T2, the Eurosystem's real-time gross settlement system — with final settlement of the cash leg in T2 and all-or-none delivery-versus-payment across platforms through a Hash-Link protocol
- **Who can join:** participants with access to T2; as DLT operators, central securities depositories, DLT Pilot Regime settlement systems, overseen payment systems, central counterparties, and licensed banks and investment firms that are under market-infrastructure oversight or pass a case-by-case assessment
- **First users:** 13 market participants — among them Deutsche Bank, Santander, Société Générale, KfW and the European Investment Bank — plus the Bundesbank, and four DLT operators: Axiology, Cashlink, Clearstream and SWIAT
- **Second track:** Appia, the Eurosystem's longer-term work towards a blueprint for an integrated tokenised financial ecosystem, due by 2028

## How Pontes works in practice

Tokenised bonds, fund units and repo can already be issued and traded on DLT platforms. The weak point has been the cash leg: paying with commercial-bank tokens or stablecoins adds the credit risk of their issuer, while paying in central bank money has meant leaving the ledger for a conventional payment. Pontes closes that gap. A bank with access to T2 can pay for a tokenised security on a connected platform in central bank money, with final settlement in T2, and the Hash-Link protocol ties delivery of the security to the payment so that both happen or neither does.

The route in matters most for fintechs. Only T2 participants settle directly, so a tokenisation start-up reaches central bank money through a partner bank or by becoming an eligible DLT operator — a CSD, a DLT Pilot Regime operator, or a licensed firm that satisfies the Eurosystem's oversight criteria. The ECB has signalled its own intent: on launch day it began preparatory work to invest part of its own funds in tokenised public-sector securities settled through Pontes.

For an investor in European tokenisation venues, a Pontes connection is becoming the credential that separates platforms institutional money can use from those it cannot. Diligence asks whether the platform is connected or eligible, which settlement banks its clients use, and how its model changes as operating hours and features widen towards 2028.

## Example

A public development bank issues a €500m two-year tokenised bond on a DLT platform connected to Pontes. Twelve investors buy it: nine hold T2 access and settle directly, three settle through their custodian banks. On the settlement date the platform locks the bond tokens, the cash moves in central bank money from the buyers' accounts to the issuer's settlement bank, and the tokens transfer only once the cash leg is final — the whole exchange completing in minutes. Coupons are programmed to settle the same way. The first issue costs about €150k more than a conventional one in legal work on the DLT documentation and investor onboarding; the arrangers expect repeat issues on the same platform to cost 20–30% less than conventional ones.

## Common mistakes

- Treating Pontes as the digital euro; it settles wholesale transactions for T2 participants.
- Assuming any DLT platform can connect; operators must meet the Eurosystem's eligibility criteria.
- Treating the launch as the finished service, when features and hours expand step by step until 2028.
- Confusing Pontes, the settlement link available now, with Appia, the longer-term blueprint.
- Planning institutional tokenisation around stablecoin settlement when clients can now settle in central bank money.

## Related terms

- [Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)](https://mahouse.world/glossary/real-time-gross-settlement-rtgs.md)
- [Tokenised Deposits](https://mahouse.world/glossary/tokenised-deposits.md)
- [Tokenized Public Equities](https://mahouse.world/glossary/tokenized-public-equities.md)
- [CBDC](https://mahouse.world/glossary/cbdc.md)
- [Settlement](https://mahouse.world/glossary/settlement.md)
- [Smart Contract](https://mahouse.world/glossary/smart-contract.md)

— Ihor Vlasov, M&A FinTech Expert. Last reviewed 2026-09-30. https://mahouse.world/authors/ihor-vlasov