The European Central Bank has unveiled a sweeping payments strategy for the Eurosystem, charting a course for Europe's financial plumbing in an era of accelerating digital transformation. Published on March 31, 2026, the plan addresses wholesale, business-to-business, retail, and cross-border payments, positioning central bank money as the anchor while embracing tokenization and distributed ledger technology.
"Payments are critical for society, and they are changing rapidly," said Piero Cipollone, member of the ECB’s Executive Board. "Whether it’s retail, wholesale or business-to-business payments, both domestic and cross-border, the ECB is working to ensure that they continue to be reliable, fast, competitive and open for innovation." This holistic framework complements the Eurosystem’s cash strategy and extends its retail payments strategy, responding to the ever-faster development of digitalisation and new technologies.
FOUR STRATEGIC PILLARS
At its core, the strategy rests on four strategic aims. First, it seeks to ensure the effectiveness of monetary policy, financial stability, and the smooth functioning of payment systems by maintaining central bank money as the anchor of a two-tier monetary system. This underscores the need for safeguarding monetary sovereignty, financial stability, settlement finality, at-par convertibility and the singleness of money across the euro area, particularly as digital payments proliferate.
The second aim focuses on achieving strategic autonomy and increased resilience, citing the EU's over-dependency on a small number of non-European payment providers and solutions.
Third, it fosters an integrated, competitive, and innovative payments ecosystem. This includes enhancing standardisation, automation, and process integration for corporate payments, enabling businesses to tap efficient solutions. Finally, the strategy aims to support the international role of the euro.
The Eurosystem's approach is two-pronged: improving existing payment infrastructures while catalysing and supporting new ones. Existing systems like the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) platform T2 will continue to act as the backbone of the euro area payment system, with explorations into extended operating hours.
EMBRACING TOKENIZATION
The strategy urges seizing the innovative potential of tokenisation, with central bank money as the settlement anchor, complemented by private assets such as EU-governed, euro-denominated tokenised deposits and stablecoins—provided they are properly designed and regulated.
Exploratory work from 2024 confirmed market demand for distributed ledger technology (DLT) in supporting efficient, programmable and automated wholesale transactions. To this end, the Eurosystem is advancing dedicated initiatives: Pontes aims to deliver a central bank money settlement solution for DLT-based wholesale payments and securities by the end of Q3 2026. Appia will explore utilities for issuing, recording, trading, and settling tokenised assets with programmability features.
The Eurosystem says it will future-proof its infrastructure so that wholesale payments and securities settlement can continue to be done in central bank money, the safest form of money. For retail, the digital euro project adapts central bank money to the digital age, fostering complementarity with pan-European, market-led solutions at the point of interaction.
RESILIENCE AND AUTONOMY
The strategy says the EU must strengthen strategic autonomy and operational resilience in payments to withstand external and technological threats. The strategy brings together all major Eurosystem initiatives – the digital euro, the work on Pontes and Appia, and enhancements to cross-border payments – in a comprehensive framework.
Cash remains integral, with the ECB developing a new series of euro banknotes featuring a new design and supporting legal initiatives aimed at reinforcing the legal tender status of cash. Preserving the role of central bank money – in both retail and wholesale markets – in a growing digital economy is key, securing trust and stability.
The Eurosystem will continue to monitor market and technological developments and adjust its strategy where needed.