Banque de France and Euroclear announced Friday that they have launched a joint initiative, Project Pythagore, to tokenise Negotiable European Commercial Paper (NEU CP).
Banque de France and Euroclear to Tokenise Short-Term Debt Market in Paris
In a press release, Euroclear said the move marked a significant step toward modernising France’s €310 billion short-term debt market through Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
The project aims to enhance transparency, efficiency, and security for issuers and investors, while reducing administrative burdens in Europe’s largest short-term debt market.
The pilot phase is expected to begin at the end of 2026, in line with the Eurosystem’s Pontes project, which will support the rollout of an interconnected wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Euroclear’s DLT-based platform will prioritise interoperability, enabling seamless integration with financial infrastructures and facilitating future CBDC use.
“Tokenising NEU CP is a strategic step toward building a more modern, efficient, resilient, and interconnected market infrastructure,” said Isabelle Delorme, Head of Product Strategy and Innovation at Euroclear. “This initiative will reinforce France’s position as a leading hub for short-term financing.”
Emmanuelle Assouan, Director General for Financial Stability and Operations at Banque de France, added that the project “is fully in line” with the firm’s ambition of an “even more automated and transparent market” and represents “a strategic segment for deploying the Eurosystem Wholesale CBDC from 2026 onwards.”
The collaboration builds on earlier innovation efforts between the two institutions, including France’s first digitally native note issued in November 2024.
