Catenaa, Thursday, May 07, 2026- The Bank of Italy has urged the European Union to explore a tokenized version of its SEPA payments system as policymakers consider how blockchain technology could reshape cross-border transactions, a senior official said Monday.
Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti said tokenization has become increasingly relevant and should be integrated into Europe’s existing payments framework rather than replacing it. She called for a “complementary strategy” that builds on current infrastructure.
Scotti said a tokenized extension of SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area system, could modernize how euro transactions are processed across Europe. SEPA already enables cashless payments across EU member states and several non-EU countries.
She said Europe’s unified payments structure provides a strong foundation for adopting distributed ledger technology, given its scale, standardized rules, and established interoperability between banks and payment providers.
The remarks come as the European Central Bank continues testing a digital euro. Scotti said analytical work on the digital euro is more advanced than other emerging payment tools, with detailed examination of its impact on monetary policy, financial stability, privacy, and competition with private payment systems.
She added that while stablecoins and tokenized deposits could support specific use cases, their broader implications for Europe’s monetary system remain unclear and require further study.
The ECB recently expanded its digital euro testing program by partnering with several European payment standard organizations to trial online transaction systems.
The push for tokenized payments reflects growing interest in applying blockchain-based infrastructure to established financial systems rather than building parallel networks.
