Exploring wholesale digital payments: Deutsche Börse Group at the ECB trials

Release date: 25 Oct 2024

In 2024, the ECB invited market participants to explore how new technologies like distributed-ledger technologies (DLT) would work for central bank money settlement. The so-called ECB trials and experiments are aimed at exploring the potential of digital payments targeting a wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Various trials (productive transactions with real securities and money) and experiments (in a closed mock environment) are carried out.

Frankfurt/Main

Together with leading institutions, infrastructures and fintechs, Deutsche Börse Group contributes to this transformative endeavour with its Clearstream and Eurex Clearing businesses.

Clearstream joins as a Market DLT Operator with its leading digital post-trade platform D7 and all three of its central securities depositories (CSDs), covering the domestic markets in Germany and Luxembourg as well as the international market with its ICSD.

Eurex Clearing is ensuring that its risk models and methodologies uphold market integrity and safety by offering the basis for future industry standards, particularly for interoperability between DLT platforms and traditional finance, in which financial market infrastructures like central counterparties (CCPs) will play a crucial role.

Get to know the use cases Deutsche Börse Group already processed successfully!

Conducted use cases to date

Instrument

Participants (role)

Central bank system

Trial (real settlement) or experiment (mock settlement)

Volume

Date

Commercial Paper

  • Deka (Issuer)
  • DZ Bank (Investor)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Bundesbank

Trial

€5 m

28 June 2024

Commercial Paper

  • DZ Bank (Issuer) 
  • Deka Bank (Investor)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Bundesbank

Trial

€5 m

1 July 2024

Commercial Paper

  • Saxony-Anhalt (Issuer) 
  • NatWest (Dealer)
  • Deka Bank (Investor)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Bundesbank

Trial

€50 m

11 September 2024

Intraday-Repo

  • JP Morgan (Buyer)
  • DZ Bank (Seller)
  • Eurex Clearing AG (CCP) 
  • Eurex Repo (Trading system)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Bundesbank

Experiment

€5.1 m

12 September 2024

Commercial Paper (Eurobond)

  • ABN AMRO Bank (Issuer)
  • Rabobank (Investor)
  • ABN AMRO Clearing (Investor)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Banque de France

Trial

€1.1 m

4 October 2024

Set of cleared Repos

  • ABN AMRO Bank (Collateral taker/cash provider) 
  • ABN AMRO Clearing (Collateral provider/cash taker) 
  • Rabobank (Collateral provider/cash taker) 
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator) 
  • Eurex Clearing (CCP) 
  • Eurex Repo (trading platform)

Banque de France

Trial

1.65 m

23 October 2024

Commercial Paper

  • L-Bank (Issuer) 
  • NatWest (Dealer/Investor) 
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator) 

Bundesbank

Trial

€50 m

25 October 2024 

Commercial Paper

  • Intesa Sanpaolo (Issuer/Investor)
  • Clearstream/D7 (Market DLT Operator)

Banca d’Italia

Trial

€10 m

8 November 2024