O'Keeffe urges trusted settlement money for tokenised finance
Central Bank of Ireland Director of Policy and International Mícheál O'Keeffe called for interoperable tokenised finance anchored in trusted money at the Blockchain Ireland Summit on October 22, 2026.
Central bank money anchors settlement
O'Keeffe said central bank settlement money enables tokenised transactions to scale while preserving trust and financial stability.
The Eurosystem launched Pontes on September 21, 2026, linking market DLT platforms to TARGET for wholesale settlement in central bank money; improvements will follow progressively.
Longer-term, Appia aims to support automation and European market integration.
Responses to the bank's March discussion paper identified legal certainty, regulatory clarity, interoperability, identity, governance, accountability and risk management as dependencies.
Firms need aligned rules on settlement finality, ownership, smart contracts and cross-border recognition.
Respondents favored adapting existing regulatory frameworks rather than creating new ones.
Early engagement meets consumer priorities
The Innovation Hub has operated since 2018; engagements rose 10 percent in 2025, with the bank on track to exceed that growth in 2026.
Its second Innovation Sandbox covered stablecoin infrastructure, account-to-account payments and financial inclusion.
The next sandbox will examine AI, including accountability, explainability and consumer protection.
Household research ranks security, reliability and fraud protection above speed and cost.
O'Keeffe urged firms to build interoperable products, use trusted settlement money and engage before launch.
Trust before transaction speed
O'Keeffe said tokenisation's benefits depend on safeguards, not technology alone.
Without legal recognition of on-chain registers, parallel off-chain records negate efficiency gains.
The bank plans to publish discussion-paper feedback and its next steps in the coming weeks.