Ever since the conception of banks, and possibly earlier, the worldwide financial system has consisted of a network of balance sheets, while payment technology has continuously improved how participants orchestrate accounting. The latest challenge to this system comes from distributed-ledger technology (DLT) and tokenization, which is increasingly adopted by traditional financial institutions. The promise of DLT is to orchestrate accounting among peers, without relying on intermediaries, and to enable new forms of automation. In this presentation, I will outline how the Eurosystem prepares for these new developments in financial market infrastructures, by introducing the projects Pontes and Appia and their objectives.

Eric Faber is cluster lead innovation policy in the market infrastructure and innovation division of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). He held a previous role as business analyst digital euro at the European Central Bank (2021-2023) and policy advisor at DNB (2019-2021). He holds a PhD in Pure Mathematics from the University of Cambridge (UK).