The Eurosystem’s payments strategy 2026

The Eurosystem has set out a comprehensive payments strategy that takes a cohesive, forward‑looking approach to developing an innovative and competitive European payments market across wholesale, business‑to‑business, retail and cross‑border payments. Its approach is two‑pronged: improve existing infrastructures while catalysing and supporting new ones. Four strategic aims underpin the work: (i) maintaining central bank money as the anchor of the two‑tier monetary system; (i) achieving strategic autonomy and resilience; (iii) fostering an integrated, competitive and innovative ecosystem; and (iv) supporting the international role of the euro.

Tokenisation, DLT and settlement assets

Tokenisation is the representation of money or assets as digital tokens on programmable platforms, allowing transfer and settlement with embedded rules. The Eurosystem views tokenisation as a way to improve efficiency and transparency while keeping payment systems secure, resilient, interoperable and with high integrity standards. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is the underlying infrastructure that records transactions across multiple sites.

Settlement assets are what parties accept for final settlement. The Eurosystem’s strategy assumes a mix of public settlement assets (central bank money) and private settlement assets (commercial bank money and new tokenised forms) will co‑exist, with tokenised central bank money as the foundational layer in programmable environments. Private tokenised assets include tokenised deposits issued by banks and euro‑denominated stablecoins that are EU‑governed, properly designed and regulated. The Eurosystem supports responsible innovation in private settlement assets while prioritising the singleness, scalability and integrity of money and avoiding fragmentation.

MiCAR is the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation. The Eurosystem recognises euro‑denominated, EU‑governed, properly designed and regulated stablecoin initiatives that comply with MiCAR and address AML/CFT, while noting that tokenised deposits may be well suited to tokenised transactions and that demand will depend on wider market and regulatory developments.

Wholesale payments: modernising T2 and developing DLT settlement

T2 is the Eurosystem’s real‑time gross settlement (RTGS) system for high‑value payments between banks. The Eurosystem will continue to support and invest in T2, including by examining extended operating hours, so it remains the backbone of the euro area payment system. In parallel, it is developing central bank money for DLT‑based settlement of wholesale payments and securities transactions through two initiatives: Pontes and Appia.

Pontes aims to deliver a central bank money settlement solution by the end of the third quarter of 2026. Appia will explore infrastructures serving as a utility for issuing, recording, trading and settling tokenised assets with programmability, including how to accommodate tokenised private settlement assets (tokenised deposits and EU‑governed, regulated stablecoins). Together, Pontes and Appia are intended to preserve the singleness of money, support programmability across private and central bank money, and prevent siloed markets.

B2B payments: standardisation and instant settlement

B2B payments are transactions between firms, often tied to invoicing, reconciliation and liquidity management. Feedback from businesses highlights the need for greater standardisation, transparency and straight‑through processing, better alignment with ERP systems, and interest in conditional payments. The Eurosystem’s instant payment settlement system, TIPS, provides 24/7 settlement in central bank money and can handle retail payments of any value, which makes it relevant for B2B use. TIPS stands for TARGET Instant Payment Settlement.

The Eurosystem has extended access to non‑bank payment service providers in TARGET Services and is working to expand interlinking to other fast payment systems. It encourages providers to improve channels and services for business needs, with the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) envisaged to play a more proactive role on standardisation, transparency and engagement with ERP providers.

Retail payments: the digital euro and market‑led solutions

Retail payments cover person‑to‑person and consumer‑to‑business use. Europe’s retail payments landscape remains fragmented and relies heavily on non‑European providers, with no single pan‑euro area electronic option despite recent momentum. The digital euro project aims to adapt central bank money to the digital age so it remains universally accessible for everyday transactions, complementing cash, free for basic use, privacy‑preserving, and designed to work online and offline. The design retains the two‑tier system and seeks to avoid bank disintermediation, while supporting standardisation at the point of interaction through legal tender status and common acceptance standards.

In October 2025, the Governing Council moved the project to the next phase to be ready for potential issuance in 2029, subject to legislation in 2026; pilot activity and initial transactions could begin as soon as mid‑2027, and a final issuance decision will follow adoption of legislation.

Alongside the digital euro, the Eurosystem continues to support market‑led, EU‑governed pan‑European solutions at the point of interaction that meet five objectives: pan‑European reach and customer experience, convenience and low cost, safety and efficiency, European brand and governance, and global acceptance in the long run. It notes progress by EPI’s Wero wallet and supports other solutions that work towards those objectives.

SEPA is the Single Euro Payments Area. The Eurosystem seeks to strengthen “classic” SEPA schemes, including instant credit transfer (SCT Inst), credit transfer (SCT) and direct debit (SDD), and sees SEPA Request‑to‑Pay (SRTP) as a way to enable instant payments at the point of interaction and beyond. The SEPA Payment Account Access (SPAA) scheme has not yet been taken up, but A2A payment initiation under SPAA or PSD2 can support choice at the point of interaction, with the forthcoming PSR and PSD3 potentially aiding uptake.

Work is also underway to bolster operational resilience, promote fallback options, and address payment fraud through structured cooperation aligned with EU legislative initiatives. The Eurosystem has set environmental best practices for electronic retail payments and issued recommendations to foster accessibility in increasingly digital payments.

Cross‑border payments: interlinking fast payment systems

To advance the G20 roadmap for faster, cheaper, more transparent and inclusive cross‑border payments, the Eurosystem is improving infrastructure and exploring tokenisation‑based innovations. In October 2024, it decided to implement cross‑border capabilities between TIPS and other fast payment systems, launch a cross‑currency settlement service in TIPS initially with Sweden and Denmark, explore connection to BIS Project Nexus, and assess a bilateral link to India’s UPI. The TIPS cross‑currency service has been available to all participants since October 2025 for Sweden and Denmark, with potential extension to future TIPS joiners.

In late 2025, the Eurosystem began exploring interlinking TIPS with Swiss Interbank Clearing Instant Payments and moved to the realisation phase for interlinking with India’s UPI, while working on legal arrangements to connect with Nexus Global Payments. TIPS interlinking keeps banks and regulated non‑banks in the chain, supporting AML/CFT standards, and could be mapped to major European supply chains, with the ERPB potentially mandated to coordinate this work. Appia’s wholesale work will also consider cross‑border interconnection and interoperability, possibly involving shared ledgers and interoperable approaches.

Monitoring and adaptation

The Eurosystem will actively monitor developments and adapt its strategy as needed, with the objective of supporting competitiveness, innovation and resilience and delivering tangible benefits for citizens, businesses and markets.