News Summary

• The European Central Bank is preparing to put some of its own money into tokenized securities.
• Settlement will occur in central bank money, routed through Pontes, the system the Eurosystem has built for trades running on distributed ledger technology.
• What the bank intends to buy is conventional enough in substance: euro-denominated debt issued by central and regional governments in the euro area, by their agencies, and by European supranational bodies.
• The money is coming from the ECB’s own funds portfolio.