Originally published by Cointelegraph on Nov. 9, 2026, at 20:27:06 UTC+8.
The European Central Bank, European Commission and European Securities and Markets Authority are seeking nominations for an industry-led group to develop common standards for holding and settling tokenized securities.
EU industry associations, global institutions, private firms and fintech companies can apply to the European Tokenisation Standards Group (ETSG) by Nov. 27, 2026. Work is scheduled to begin in January 2027, according to a release published Monday. The three EU institutions will participate as observers.
Connecting DLT platforms with existing financial systems
The group will draft technical and market standards intended to help companies hold and settle tokenized securities across different distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms, while enabling those platforms to work with existing financial systems.
Its mandate targets an initial set of standards by early 2028. Those standards will support Appia, the Eurosystem initiative to develop a blueprint for Europe’s tokenized financial markets.
The institutions warned that fragmentation could limit tokenization’s benefits. The group may also recommend ways for EU authorities to encourage firms to adopt its standards.
A separate settlement initiative
In September 2026, the Eurosystem launched Pontes, a system that allows financial institutions to settle wholesale transactions in tokenized assets using central bank money.
The ETSG’s proposed work concerns common holding and settlement standards across platforms; the report does not specify a cross-chain transfer mechanism or verification model.
