As part of the Eurosystem exploratory work to test new technologies for the settlement of wholesale transactions in central bank money, from May to November 2024, Eligible Market Participants and Eligible Market DLT Operators will have the opportunity to explore the interoperability solution(s) of their choice offered by the Eurosystem. The Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution is one of these three available solutions. It links DLT platforms operated by the market with the traditional Eurosystem payment system (TARGET), thus enabling the direct settlement of DLT-based wholesale transactions on participants’ existing RTGS accounts in central bank money. The exploratory work comprises both trials in the participants’ production systems and experiments in the test environments.

Here, we would like to inform you about the explorations already conducted with the Trigger Solution, their underlying use cases and the institutions involved. The list will be updated continuously with new trials and experiments that will have taken place.

Trial: Issuance of a digital registered bond

On 18 July 2024, the first trial of a wave 2 use case team with the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution took place. The use case team Bayerische Landesbank, Helaba (Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen) and Stadtsparkasse München explored the cash settlement of the issuance of a digital registered bond by using the Trigger Solution. Helaba acted as cash settlement agent for Stadtsparkasse München as buyer of the digital registered bond. Bayerische Landesbank assumed the roles of the market DLT operator and, on the participant side, of the issuer of the underlying security. The use case team received technical and specialist support from the two technology providers SWIAT, on whose blockchain network and software the registered bond was issued, and NTT DATA.

Trial: Issuance of a digital bearer bond

On 11 July 2024, the use case partners DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale and Bankhaus Metzler explored the cash settlement of the issuance of a digital bearer bond together with the Trigger Solution. DekaBank assumed the roles of issuer as well as market DLT operator and registrar, while Bankhaus Metzler acted as investor. The bearer bond was issued same-day on the blockchain infrastructure of the use case team’s technology partner SWIAT. The use case was conducted as a trial and thus resulted in real and final bookings on the RTGS accounts of the participating banks in TARGET, the Eurosystem’s payment system, by using the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution. 

Experiment: Issuance and primary distribution of a bond

The first experiment with the Trigger Solution was performed on 8 July 2024. BNP Paribas explored the issuance and primary distribution of a bond using its AssetFoundry – Ethereum based – tokenization platform. The experiment took place with mock data in the test environments of the participants. The simulated cash settlement was carried out using the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution which resulted in bookings on the BNP Paribas’ RTGS test accounts in the T2-UTEST environment, the test environment of the Eurosystem’s payments system. For the purpose of this experiment, BNP Paribas played both, the role of the market DLT operator and the role of market participants as issuer and as investor in the simulation.

Trial: Issuance and primary distribution of a commercial paper

On 28 June and 1 July 2024, the first two trials with the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution were successfully settled. The use case comprised the issuance and primary distribution of a commercial paper with the use case team Clearstream Banking Frankfurt AG as market DLT operator with its digital D7-platform and the two market participants DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale and DZ Bank AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank. The exploration was conducted as a trial in the participants’ production systems and ultimately resulted in real and final bookings in TARGET, the Eurosystem’s payment system, by using the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger Solution.