PANews, September 13 news, according to Ledger Insights, the Eurosystem distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement project Pontes is scheduled to go live on September 21. Clearstream has announced its participation in end-to-end testing before the launch, covering system connectivity, settlement processes, and operational readiness; Axiology is also advancing testing and certification, with test scenarios including securities issuance, secondary market trading, redemptions, and coupon payments.

Pontes is positioned as an interoperability “bridge,” connecting multiple market DLT platforms to the Eurosystem TARGET services, supporting the settlement of tokenized securities and other wholesale transactions in central bank money, and achieving synchronized settlement such as delivery-versus-payment through a mechanism similar to hash-lock escrow called Hash-Link. In the initial phase, settlement finality on the cash leg will be achieved after the corresponding funds transfer is completed in the T2 system.

Notably, the European Central Bank has removed the “pilot” label from the project, meaning its goal is to deliver a production-grade service rather than another experiment. In a speech on August 26, ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone positioned Pontes as an operational service and stated that in the initial phase, only a one-time access fee will be charged, with operating hours gradually extended. The plan is to provide 7×24 service and multi-currency capabilities by mid-2028. The project originates from the dual-track plan approved by the ECB Governing Council on July 1, 2025: advancing Pontes in the short term and promoting Appia for an integrated DLT capital market in the long term, whose roadmap was recently published.