EU calls for nominations to stakeholder group on financial tokenisation standards

The European Central Bank (ECB), alongside the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), has invited wholesale financial industry stakeholders to express their interest in joining the European Tokenisation Standards Group (ETSG). The group will bring together industry participants to develop common standards aimed at creating an interconnected tokenised financial ecosystem.

The ETSG intends to establish a framework for monitoring compliance with the agreed standards. It may also develop recommendations for EU authorities on potential measures to incentivise adherence to these standards. The group's activities will be market-driven and guided by industry contributions and consensus. Industry participants will chair the ETSG, while the ECB, European Commission and ESMA will participate as observers.

Also Read: US FDA orders new safety warnings on weight-loss drugs over potential risk of vision loss

Participation is open to a broad range of stakeholders, including EU associations, private entities, global institutions, fintech companies and technical providers involved in tokenisation or distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based financial services, in line with the group's mandate outlined in Annex 1. The European Commission (EC) has been actively promoting the wider adoption of tokenisation through legislative proposals aimed at removing regulatory barriers to innovation in distributed ledger technology (DLT).

In its statement of July 2026, the EuroGroup said that, “Without shared standards, the multiplication of DLT networks risks recreating and compounding the fragmentation that we have been trying hard to overcome in the EU financial and payment systems. The EU should therefore seize this historic opportunity and engage in setting common standards and promoting interoperability, both among different DLT networks and between DLTs and traditional system.”

Interested industry stakeholders and public bodies are invited to review the additional background information and submit their responses to the call for nominations, as detailed in Annex 2. The deadline for submitting applications is 27 November 2026.