PRESS RELEASE
Paris, 15 June 2026
The Euro Banking Association (EBA) today announced the publication of a new insight
note by its Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working Group (DSWG) “Adoption of
Tokenised Money – Part 2: Considerations of key criteria”.
The note analyses the drivers behind the adoption of stablecoins and tokenised
deposits, identifies critical success factors of a tokenised payment instrument and
explores selected use cases where tokenisation is expected to add value for end
users. It answers pertinent questions regarding feasibility, viability and responsibility.
The insight note focuses on stablecoins issued by both banks and e-money institutions
as well as tokenised deposits and deposit tokens issued by banks. CBDCs and
cryptocurrencies are not in scope.
The note posits that even though existing use cases are rather marginal, several
factors are expected to drive the growth of both stablecoins and tokenised deposits
and deposit tokens. However, changing the payment behaviour of both payers and
beneficiaries is not easy and typically takes time. To reach mainstream adoption, a
payment instrument must meet critical success factors, such as compliance, security,
resiliency, user experience and cost efficiency. In addition, the network effect implies
that broader market adoption amplifies the instrument’s value proposition for all
participants across the ecosystem.
According to the members of EBA Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working
Group (DSWG), it is still too early to judge how well stablecoins and tokenised deposits
fulfil these critical success factors. Currently, cost efficiency and user experience seem
to be the primary selling points, e.g. for stablecoins. But the key differentiator
compared to traditional payment rails is to be proven still. Market participants, including
financial institutions, are actively exploring and testing the potential additional value of
tokenised money. After all, payment innovations should serve the needs of the users,
solve existing problems and bring value to the entire ecosystem. Successful scaling of
tokenised payment instruments beyond pilot phases and their effective integration into
mainstream financial infrastructure will depend on a number of success factors.
“As underlying technology continues to evolve rapidly – and adoption of tokenised
money expands from global payment networks to large corporates – financial
institutions should proactively assess and decide on their investments in this area,”
says Wim Grosemans, Chair of the EBA’s Digital Currencies & Smart Payments
Working Group (DSWG). “It will be key to remain competitive and capture new
opportunities.”
The Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working Group (DSWG) explores
strategic considerations around digital currencies. The working group aims to
contribute to learning about and exploring the emergence of digital currencies,
and to analyse the potential applications, opportunities and implications thereof,
with the objective to produce white papers on the topic.