European Central Bank

This paper analyses the main features of DLTs that could influence their adoption by financial institutions and discusses how use of these technologies could affect the European post-trade market for securities.

One of the more recent technological developments that holds potential for the financial industry is distributed ledger technology, or DLT. This article looks briefly at what exactly this new technology is and what the potential implications are for Europe’s financial market infrastructure.

The launch of TARGET2-Securities (T2S) as a new platform for securities settlement provides an ideal opportunity for the Eurosystem to develop a vision for evolving its market infrastructure services.

Letter from the ECB President to Ms Eva Kaili, MEP, on virtual currency schemes and alternative forms of payment.

A presentation given by Luc Laeven, Director-General DG Research, around virtual currency schemes, held at the Chief Economists Workshop London, UK.

This report adds perspective and detail, while reiterating and confirming the general consideration of the ECB’s report on virtual currency schemes (2012) that, although VCS can have positive aspects in terms of financial innovation and the provision of additional payment alternatives for consumers, it is clear that they also entail risks.

This paper aims to provide some clarity on virtual currencies and tries to address the issue in a structured approach.