ECB, Commission and ESMA seek industry members for an EU tokenisation standards group

The European Central Bank, the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on 9 Nov that they are seeking nominations for the European Tokenisation Standards Group (ETSG). The ECB’s announcement calls on “wholesale financial industry stakeholders” to apply. It says the group “will bring together industry stakeholders to develop common standards for an interconnected tokenised financial ecosystem”.

Participation is open to EU associations, private entities, global institutions, fintech companies and technical providers working on tokenisation or DLT-based financial services. The authorities will act as observers.

The mandate

The mandate, published as an annex, sets the group’s objective as promoting “end-to-end interoperability in the European DLT-based financial market ecosystem”. It is to do this by agreeing common market standards “that facilitate settlement and holding of DLT financial instruments between DLT infrastructures and between DLT and legacy infrastructures”.

The tasks listed are:

• defining what interoperability means in a DLT-based ecosystem
• cataloguing existing European and global DLT standardisation initiatives to avoid “redundant double-work”
• identifying gaps with established standards used in today’s markets
• defining the layers where standards are needed
• developing the standards and monitoring their adoption
• making recommendations to EU policymakers, which may include ways to incentivise compliance

The mandate says the group should aim to deliver initial versions of the standards relevant to the Eurosystem’s Appia roadmap “by early 2028”. Ahead of any legislative mandate, it may also begin work on standards for settlement between DLT systems operated in the EU, “including standards for establishing links” in the sense of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation.

Its geographical scope is the EU, but the mandate says the standards should be compatible “to the extent possible” with relevant global standards.

Link to the DLT Pilot changes

The background note links the group to the Commission’s December 2025 Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP). Among other things, the package proposes amendments to the DLT Pilot Regulation that would require an industry group to set standards for settling DLT financial instruments between DLT market infrastructures. The authorities agreed to sponsor the ETSG “to start work on interoperability as soon as possible, even before the DLTPR amendments are adopted”. The note says this is “without prejudice to the final requirements” that co-legislators adopt.

The mandate cites a Eurogroup statement of July 2026: “without shared standards, the multiplication of DLT networks risks recreating and compounding the fragmentation that we have been trying hard to overcome in the EU financial and payment systems.”

How it will work

• Leadership: the members will appoint a chair and co-chair from among themselves, in consultation with the authorities. A secretary will come from the ECB, ESMA or the Commission. The three authorities are permanent observers.
• Decisions: taken by consensus as defined by ISO, which “need not imply unanimity”.
• Composition: the mandate says no stakeholder group, whether defined by business model, technology or industry segment, “shall have a dominant representation”.
• Commitments: nominees must represent an entity with a European presence and be “able to commit their organisation to actions arising from the Group’s findings”.
• Transparency: progress reports will be public unless the authorities agree otherwise. The ECB will publish group documents by default.

Applications are made through an online form by 27 Nov 2026. Both selected and unselected candidates will receive feedback, and the group is expected to start work in January 2027.

Why it matters

Analysis. Europe already has several regulated DLT venues and settlement systems under the DLT Pilot Regime, such as Börse Stuttgart’s Seturion (our report), as well as Eurosystem central bank money settlement through Pontes (our report). Without shared standards for asset representation, settlement instructions and links, each new platform risks becoming its own silo. Collateral and inventory held on one platform would not move to another.

For CSDs, custodians, banks and DLT operators, a seat in the group means helping to set the rules they will later have to build to, possibly before the DLT Pilot changes become law. The requirement to commit resources and to act on the group’s findings will make membership a real cost. Market practitioners will want to see whether the final membership reflects the “no dominant representation” principle, and whether incumbent CSDs or newer DLT operators shape the agenda.

What we are watching

• The membership list and the chair, expected before work starts in January 2027.
• Progress on the MISP and the DLT Pilot amendments in Parliament and in trilogues (Council’s position).

Sources

• EU seeks nominations for stakeholder group on tokenisation standards in finance, ECB, 9 Nov 2026
• Mandate of the European Tokenisation Standards Group (Annex 1), 9 Nov 2026
• Background and Call for nominations (Annex 2), 9 Nov 2026
• EU seeks nominations for stakeholder group on tokenisation standards in finance, ESMA, 9 Nov 2026