Central Bank of Ireland opens discussion on DLT and tokenisation

On 5 March 2026, the Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) published DP 12, “DLT & Tokenisation in Financial Services” (the DP) with a view to “stimulate informed dialogue on the future role of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and tokenisation applications within the Irish and European financial services ecosystem”.

In particular, the DP aims to

• increase the Central Bank’s understanding of DLT and its potential to transform the underlying infrastructure of finance and create new innovative financial services
• assess the opportunities, challenges, enablers and risks arising from these technological innovations
• examine how DLT and tokenisation interact and intersect with existing financial infrastructures, intermediaries and product offerings and
• ensure that the use of DLT and tokenisation in financial services delivers the benefits of efficiency, transparency, and accessibility for society as a whole.

The DP remains open for responses until 5 June 2026.

What’s in the DP?

In the DP, the Central Bank examines the benefits, the enablers, sectoral considerations and risks associated with DLT and tokenisation in financial services and how regulation and supervision may need to evolve in response. One of its key considerations is how to preserve the benefits of trusted intermediation, robust governance and systemic resilience while, at the same time, accommodating technological innovation and new market structures.

The DP notes that:

• regulatory frameworks must “remain flexible and forward- looking, capable of adapting to innovation” so that innovation in financial services can deliver efficiency, transparency and broader economic benefits while risks are managed appropriately
• while integrating DLT into mainstream finance offers clear potential benefits, it might also have profound implications for the financial system
• understanding how tokenisation interacts with existing financial frameworks and market practices is critical to ensuring that innovation supports and effects positive change
• the Central Bank believes that, deployed correctly, DLT and tokenisation can benefit the financial system and help the EU’s financial markets become deeper and better integrated
• in markets, funds and payments, tokenisation challenges existing assumptions about intermediation, settlement finality, governance and oversight
• risks associated with tokenisation are neither uniformly higher nor uniformly lower than those in “traditional” finance - rather, they are redistributed across new actors, new roles, technologies and interfaces

Next steps

The consultation period closes on 5 June 2026.

The Central Bank intends to use the DP as a basis for structured engagement with stakeholders - domestic and international - on the opportunities, challenges, enablers and risks arising from DLT and tokenisation - responses to the DP will inform its thinking on, and approach to these issues.

The Central Bank intends to publish a feedback statement in due course, which will outline insights gathered through the consultation engagement and it will assess whether existing policy and regulatory approaches are adequate to allow both the benefits of integrating DLT into financial services to be achieved and the risks to be managed.