AIBRIEF
The own funds portfolio is the non monetary, non policy slice the ECB uses to fund operations, and Pontes is the Eurosystem's new DLT based settlement platform launched the same day.
The European Central Bank will start buying tokenised euro-area government and supranational bonds, but not with monetary policy money. It will use the slice of its own balance sheet that pays the lights, settling the trades in central bank money over Pontes, the Eurosystem's new DLT-based settlement platform launched the same day.
The own-funds portfolio is a non-monetary policy portfolio that gives the ECB income to help cover operating costs, excluding supervisory tasks. Routing the first DLT trades through it keeps the experiment out of the ECB's policy books, where any move would carry a market signal, and lets the institution rehearse the full investment lifecycle: execution, settlement, systems, and portfolio management.
Initial buys will sit in euro-denominated paper from euro-area central governments, regional governments, agencies, and European supranational institutions. The ECB frames the move as capability-building under the Eurosystem's "fit for the digital age" strategy, alongside Pontes and the Appia blueprint for a tokenised financial ecosystem in Europe.
Portfolio size, execution timing, and the counterparties are still to be set. The Executive Board will decide after the preparatory work completes, factoring in how the tokenised-issuance market develops.