ECB comprehensive payments strategy

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published its comprehensive payments strategy, setting out a consolidated, forward‑looking approach for the development of European payments across wholesale, business‑to‑business, retail and cross‑border use cases. The strategy has four strategic aims: (i) ensuring the effectiveness of monetary policy, financial stability and the smooth functioning of payment systems by maintaining the role of central bank money as the anchor of a two-tier monetary system; (ii) achieving strategic autonomy and increased resilience for European payments; (iii) fostering an integrated, competitive and innovative payments ecosystem; and (iv) supporting the international role of the euro.

These involve:

• Developing a European market for tokenised settlement assets by leveraging the innovative potential of tokenisation while maintaining central bank money as the anchor for settlement, complemented by private settlement assets. These private settlement assets include tokenised deposits and stablecoins that are EU-governed, euro-denominated and properly designed and regulated.
• Improving existing infrastructure and investing in distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solutions for wholesale payments by continuing to support and invest in its RTGS settlement system T2 (including exploring the extension of its operating hours), while developing central bank money for the settlement of DLT-based wholesale payments and securities transactions through its Pontes and Appia initiatives.
• Enhancing standardisation, automation and process integration in corporate payments by facilitating more proactive engagement between the supply side and the corporate sector to enable more efficient, innovative solutions and the seamless integration of payment flows into business processes and leveraging innovations such as conditional payments.
• Achieving resilient, integrated, innovative and competitive euro retail payments through the digital euro and market-led solutions by adapting central bank money to the digital age. At the same time, the ECB will continue to support EU-governed, pan-European, market-led solutions for retail payments at the point of interaction.
• Advancing the G20 roadmap to enhance cross-border payments by both expanding the use of current efficient solutions such as the interlinking of fast payment systems and taking advantage of innovations based on tokenisation. The ECB will take action in its various roles to support European businesses and individuals with their payments outside the EU. The ECB will actively monitor developments and adapt its strategy as needed.

Return to main website.