Exploring New Technologies for Central Bank Money Settlement

The Eurosystem has recently issued a call for expression of interest for financial market stakeholders who are keen on exploring new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement. This call invites interested parties to engage in trials with central bank money settlement and in experiments with mock settlement in a test environment. The goal is to conduct trials and experiments with three Eurosystem solutions that will allow wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology platforms to be settled in central bank money within the T2 real-time gross settlement system operated by the Eurosystem.

Financial market stakeholders who wish to participate in the trials and/or experiments, scheduled to take place between May 2024 and November 2024, are required to respond to the relevant national central banks by 31 January 2024. For those who are interested in joining trials and/or experiments scheduled between July 2024 and November 2024, the deadline for response is 30 April 2024. The annexes include the call for expression of interest, a detailed description of the three interoperability solutions, and a registration form with contact details.

This initiative was announced by the Eurosystem in April 2023, followed by a survey on the plans for trials and experiments. The Eurosystem will be providing insights into this exploratory work during a focus session to be held between 9:00 and 14:00 CET on 15 December 2023. During this event, the objectives of the work will be outlined and details will be provided on the planned trials and experiments, showcasing the three potential solutions.

Financial market stakeholders who are interested in engaging in this exploratory work are encouraged to review the call for expression of interest, as it describes the timeline and the use cases, process, and requirements for taking part in the exploratory work, as well as provides information on how to register interest in participating. Additionally, a detailed description of the three interoperability solutions and a registration form with contact details are also included in the annexes.

These developments highlight the Eurosystem’s commitment to exploring innovative technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement and its readiness to collaborate with financial market stakeholders in this significant endeavour. Financial market stakeholders are urged to consider this opportunity to contribute to the evolution of wholesale central bank money settlement and to register their interest in participating in the trials and experiments as part of this pioneering initiative led by the Eurosystem.