Eurosystem

We talked a lot about that this week.

The Bank of Korea starts 24-hour offshore one-settlement pilot with four banks.

The Eurosystems Pontes went live, as we talked about.

The U.S. is apparently weighing an initiative to promote dollar-backed stablecoins abroad.

I think, Nick, we sort of touched on that earlier.

thanks for that In the second half of our podcast, I'd like to talk about some of the tools and forward-looking contingencies that people in the policy space have to keep in mind.

And I'd like to talk a little bit about the European Central Bank and the Eurosystems Transmission Protection Instrument.

Olaf, can you tell us your thinking right now? Is

this tool sufficiently available if we need it? What would people need to consider if it were really on the table?

Today, we're breaking down five infrastructure shifts that are rewiring how money moves in 2026.

By the end of this episode, you'll understand what Treasury AI actually demands from human workers, why stablecoins are showing up in your company's B2B payment stack, and what the Eurosystem's brand new Pontes platform means for anyone building a career in institutional finance.

I've got someone here who's been deep in this briefing, and I want to start with the big picture.

What is actually happening across these five systems right now?

And that's exactly why the human expertise piece is so important.

The Ponte's documentation highlights settlement finality for the cash leg in T2.

That's the Eurosystem's real-time gross settlement system.

Eligibility rules govern participating institutions, infrastructures, and assets.

The purchase would be settled through Pontez.

the new Eurosystem platform, which allows wholesale transactions to settle in central bank money.

The platform essentially bridges the ECB's payment system to blockchain-based financial markets.

The plan to invest in tokenized securities and pontes reflects a more significant bid by central banks in the EU to adapt to the increasing use of blockchain in finance.

It's really a privilege to be exchanging views with you on financial literacy and to discuss how it is so relevant for financial stability.

Just before progressing, let me make the usual disclaimer that the views and opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem.

Thanks, Demet.

All right, Pedro, let's start with the basics.

It's really a privilege to be exchanging views with you on financial literacy and to discuss how it is so relevant for financial stability.

Just before progressing, let me make the usual disclaimer that the views and opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Banco de Portugal or the Eurosystem.

Thanks, Demet.

All right, Pedro, let's start with the basics.

So we need to essentially, first of all, test the infrastructure and the interaction of the digital Euro infrastructure with the PSP backend systems.

Then we need to, let's say, optimize the model.

So, especially about the interaction between banks' systems and the Eurosystems system, there is something that we can improve in order to reduce cost and improve performance of the infrastructure.

We have to test the go-to-market strategy and we have to validate the subsequent rollout.

There's going to be four main use cases.