Europe should weigh tokenized SEPA payments, Bank of Italy official says

European financial institutions should assess whether the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) can be extended into tokenized payments, Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti said, as policymakers look for ways to keep euro-denominated settlement central to digital finance.

Scotti called a tokenized extension of SEPA an “important area for reflection” during a Monday speech at the Digital Assets and Monetary Policy Transmission workshop in Rome, saying Europe’s existing payments framework offers scale, shared standards and interoperability.

Her comments come as the Eurosystem prepares a pilot for Pontes, a distributed ledger technology settlement initiative designed to link market DLT platforms with TARGET Services and settle transactions in central bank money. The pilot is expected by the third quarter of 2026.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is also developing Appia, a longer-term roadmap for Europe’s tokenized financial ecosystem that is expected to conclude in 2028, as policymakers weigh how tokenized deposits, stablecoins and central