ECB and EU Regulators Seek Members for New Tokenization Standards Group

The European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) have opened a call for nominations to a new industry group that will write common standards for tokenized finance. Wholesale financial firms and public bodies have until November 27, 2026, to apply.

• The new body is called the European Tokenisation Standards Group (ETSG) and will be chaired by industry participants.
• The ECB, the European Commission and ESMA will sit on the group as observers rather than as leaders.
• Applications to join the ETSG must be submitted by November 27, 2026.

What the ECB, Commission and ESMA announced

The ECB, the euro area’s central bank, joined the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, and ESMA, the EU markets regulator, in inviting wholesale financial industry stakeholders to express interest in the ETSG. The group’s job is to develop shared standards for a connected tokenized financial system.

Tokenization means representing assets such as securities or money as digital tokens on a blockchain or similar shared ledger.

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How the ETSG will work

The ETSG aims to set up a framework for checking whether market participants follow the standards it agrees. It may also recommend to EU authorities how they could encourage firms to comply.

The three institutions said the group’s work will be market-driven and based on input and consensus from industry. Industry participants will chair the group, while the ECB, the Commission and ESMA will observe.

How the group fits the ECB’s plans

The ECB has been building the settlement side of this market. In September 2026 it launched Pontes, a service that lets trades on blockchain platforms settle in central bank money, and it has set out a longer-term plan called Appia for a connected tokenized market in Europe. The new group’s first standards are meant to support Appia.

EU law already lets firms test blockchain-based trading and settlement under the DLT Pilot Regime, which has applied since March 2023. In December 2025, the European Commission proposed changes that would push these systems to work with one another and with existing market infrastructure.

Who can apply

Participation is open to a wide range of stakeholders, in line with the group’s mandate. Eligible applicants include EU associations, private firms, global institutions, fintech companies and technical providers working on tokenization or services based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), the broader family of technologies that includes blockchain.

What happens next

Interested industry stakeholders and public bodies are asked to review the group’s mandate and submit a nomination by November 27, 2026. The group is set to start work in January 2027 and aims to deliver its first standards in early 2028. The institutions have not said how many members it will have or when they will be named. Readers following the region can find more on crypto regulation across Europe and real-world asset tokenization.