Outcome of the second meeting of the Eurosystem’s market contact group on new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement

15 August 2023

The New Technologies for Wholesale settlement Contact Group (NTW-CG) held a second meeting on Tuesday, 18 July 2023 to discuss the approach to the exploratory work starting in 2024. The group supports the Eurosystem in setting up experiments and trials for market participants to explore solutions for settling wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms in central bank money.

Three interoperability-type solutions will be available for participants, which will be offered by the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Banque de France and the Banca d’Italia, on behalf of the Eurosystem. During the meeting, the Eurosystem presented the scope, roadmap and key milestones for trials. The members of the NTW-CG discussed aspects such as the setup, underlying technology and settlement process for each solution.

During the trials and experiments in 2024, the group will continue to support the interpretation of key takeaways. The outcomes of these analyses and exchanges will help the Eurosystem and market participants to gain insights into how different solutions could facilitate the interaction between TARGET Services and DLT platforms, and further the Eurosystem’s efforts to ensure that central bank money keeps up with digital innovation as new technologies emerge. This is one of the key objectives of the NTW-CG, as settlement in central bank money must remain the monetary anchor for the stability and efficiency of the European financial system.

The agenda and slides presented during the second meeting of the NTW-CG are published on the group’s website. The next meeting of the NTW-CG will take place on Thursday, 7 September.