Clearstream joins ECB trials to explore DLT for central bank money settlement

Clearstream, Deutsche Börse Group’s post-trade business, has joined the European Central Bank (ECB) trials and experiments.

ECB is aimed at exploring the potential of distributed-ledger technology (DLT) for wholesale central bank money settlement in the light of the development of a digital Euro.

Clearstream says they aim to assess the feasibility of using DLT for wholesale transaction processing, using tokenised securities.

To support the trials, the firm has collaborated with Google Cloud to “enhance” its D7 platform with respective DLT capabilities.

Clearstream will connect to all three central bank digital offerings: Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution, Banca d’Italia’s TIPS Hash-link and Banque de France’s Full DLT Interoperability.

Jens Hachmeister, head of issuer services and new digital markets at Clearstream, says: “We are expanding our D7 digital securities infrastructure with DLT components and fostering connections with the main digital payment solutions across the Eurosystem.

“Of course, Clearstream will leverage the trial insights to further enhance D7 for the industry.”

The ECB trials will be conducted from May to November 2024 in a productive environment, using real central bank money.