Exploring wholesale digital payments: Clearstream at the ECB trials
In 2024, the ECB invited market participants to test how new technologies like DLT would work for central bank money settlement. The so-called ECB trials and experiments are aimed at exploring the potential of digital payments targeting a wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC) and are conducted from May to November 2024. Various trials (productive transactions with real securities and money) and experiments (in a closed mock environment) are carried out.
Clearstream as market DLT operator
Together with leading institutions, infrastructures and fintech businesses, Clearstream contributes to this transformative endeavour as market Market DLT Operator with its leading digital post-trade platform D7 and all three of its central securities depositories (CSDs): its German CSD, LuxCSD and the international CSD in Luxembourg.
D7 – the digital securities platform
To optimally support the goal of the exploration, Clearstream has enhanced its digital post-trade platform D7 with respective DLT capabilities. This was done in collaboration with Google Cloud, leveraging the strategic partnership of Deutsche Börse Group and Google Cloud. Clearstream’s D7 has a proven track record with over 250,000 digital securities issuances, more than any other digital post-trade solution worldwide.
Calling for a transitory solution after the ECB trials
The ECB trials have been very successful so far and the experience gathered has been invaluable. Clearstream calls for a frictionless lead-over of the proven trial infrastructure into a transitory solution beyond November 2024. This would serve as the nucleus for developing a stable long-term solution to advance a competitive digital financial ecosystem in Europe.
Get to know the use cases Clearstream’s D7 already processed successfully!
Conducted use cases to date
25 October 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
| Commercial Paper |
| Bundesbank | Trial | €50 m |
23 October 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Set of cleared Repos |
| Banque de France | Trial | €1.65 m |
4 October 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Commercial Paper (Eurobond) |
| Banque de France | Trial | €1.1 m |
12 September 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Intraday-Repo |
| Bundesbank | Experiment | €5.1 m |
11 September 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Commercial Paper |
| Bundesbank | Trial | €50 m |
1 July 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Commercial Paper |
| Bundesbank | Trial | €5 m |
28 June 2024
Instrument | Participants (role) | Central bank system | Trial or experiment | Volume |
Commercial Paper |
| Bundesbank | Trial | €5 m |