BIS: central banks weigh account access for stablecoin issuers
Report says central bank money must stay at the core as tokenisation changes payments
Central banks are reviewing who can hold accounts with them as stablecoin issuers and other non-bank payment firms take on a growing role in payments, according to a report from the Bank for International Settlements' Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI).
The report, published on Thursday 29 October, examines the roles of central banks and central bank money as tokenisation, stablecoins and non-bank providers change how payments are made and settled. It updates the committee's 2003 report on the role of central bank money in payment systems, published when the CPMI was called the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems.
It concludes that central bank money should remain the settlement asset in systemically important payment systems and other financial market infrastructures (FMIs) where practical and available. It should also underpin convertibility at par between different forms of money.
"Central bank money need not be used in every transaction or on every platform, but it must be at the core," Fabio Panetta, governor of the Banca d'Italia and chair of the CPMI, wrote in the report's foreword.
Panetta added that central banks would need to give as much attention to technology, data, operational resilience and cybersecurity as to financial markets. "In the payment system of tomorrow, the soundness of technology will matter as much as the soundness of balance sheets," he said.
Access to accounts
A survey of CPMI members, reflecting policies as of September 2026, found that all member central banks offer settlement accounts to domestic banks. Eligibility for non-banks varies widely and is generally more restrictive for foreign entities.
Several central banks are reviewing their policies. The Bank of England (BoE) is considering a stablecoin account for regulated systemically important stablecoin issuers and expects to provide them with central bank deposit accounts from October 2027. Its draft code of practice, published in June, would require systemic sterling stablecoins to hold 30% of their backing assets as unremunerated deposits at the central bank.
The Reserve Bank of Australia will review its settlement account access policy, including account structures that could support private tokenised money such as stablecoins. In the US, a new "payment account" is being considered for clearing and settlement only, without access to Federal Reserve credit or interest on balances. In the euro area, licensed electronic money institutions issuing e-money tokens are eligible for central bank accounts under a Eurosystem policy adopted in 2024.
Tokenised reserves
The report says a large number of central banks are investigating whether to make central bank money available as tokenised reserves, with an increasing number running pilots and some having started to issue them. It cites the Eurosystem's Pontes and Appia initiatives and the Swiss National Bank's Helvetia pilot. As part of Helvetia, the Swiss National Bank is exploring a tokenised
Swiss franc for financial institutions.
The committee warns that separating the issuance of money from its recording and transfer on tokenised platforms raises questions over who is accountable for managing risk. It adds that liquidity may fragment across platforms that are not effectively connected. Stablecoin holders without direct redemption rights rely on secondary markets to convert their holdings, which could cause price deviations unrelated to the issuer's solvency.
The report says an economy in which either the central bank or private firms provide all the money would not be stable or efficient enough. It adds that central banks will continue to assess developments and take proportionate and timely action where needed.