ABBL members chosen for ECB’s exploratory work on wholesale transaction settlement

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to explore new technologies for the settlement of wholesale transactions in central bank money. Scheduled to begin on 13 May 2024, this collaborative initiative brings together financial firms and central banks in a pioneering effort to modernise transaction settlement.

Ten participants for the first wave

The Governing Council of the ECB approved the participation of ten market participants, entities with access to TARGET, and six distributed ledger technology (DLT) operators. These selected participants have shown a strong interest in trials involving actual settlement in central bank money and in shadow settlement experiments in a controlled test environment.

In particular, several euro area central banks, including the Banque centrale du Luxembourg, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, will actively participate in the first wave of this exploratory work.

ABBL members in the spotlight

We are pleased to announce that several members of the ABBL have been selected to participate in the first wave of testing. Their participation underlines the ABBL’s commitment to encouraging innovation and driving the financial sector forward. The list of participating ABBL members can be found here.

Exploring new technologies and use cases

Selected market participants and DLT operators have proposed several use cases focusing on wholesale transactions recorded on DLT platforms with settlement in central bank money. These use cases mainly explore the securities’ settlement cycle, encompassing delivery versus payment, secondary market transactions and lifecycle management of securities.

Call for expressions of interest for the second wave

While the list of participants in the first wave has been finalised, the call for expressions of interest to participate in the second wave of testing and experimentation, scheduled to take place between July and November 2024, remains open until 30 April 2024. Financial market participants wishing to take part can gain an insight into the Eurosystem’s exploratory work by viewing a recorded discussion session available on the ECB’s official website.

How to apply?

Interested parties should submit the necessary documents and a business case proposal to their national central bank by the deadline. The Eurosystem will assess the eligibility of respondents and the feasibility of proposals before launching the second wave of testing and experimentation.

For more information and to submit your application, please consult the ECB’s official announcement.

If, as an ABBL member, you are looking for partners to apply for the second wave, please contact Andrey Martovoy.