Axiology joins four-platform Pontes launch for digital securities

Pontes launches with four European market infrastructures

Axiology has joined the first four market infrastructures connected to Pontes, a new Eurosystem service that allows digital securities transactions to be paid for using central bank money. According to Tech.eu, the service began operating earlier in September 2026. The Vilnius-based business is participating alongside Clearstream in Luxembourg and SWIAT and Cashlink in Frankfurt.

Pontes connects two systems with different responsibilities. Platforms using distributed ledger technology, or DLT, manage the securities transaction; TARGET Services, the Eurosystem’s payments infrastructure, handles the money exchanged for those assets. The arrangement allows financial institutions to use digital securities infrastructure without having to make the associated payment in a privately issued settlement asset.

For Axiology customers, this adds an alternative rather than replacing an existing service. Tech.eu reports that the platform already accommodates euro-denominated stablecoins, with transactions completed either within the day or through an atomic arrangement, depending on customer requirements. Pontes makes central bank money available alongside those options.

Axiology’s role includes sending payment instructions on its participants’ behalf. The company is testing the connection for newly issued securities, subsequent trades, repayment at maturity and coupon or interest distributions, according to its business development officer, Martynas Pilkis. That scope puts the integration to work beyond the initial purchase of a digital bond.

Axiology combines securities services under the EU pilot regime

Axiology develops infrastructure through which businesses and public-sector issuers can raise money using digital financial instruments, including bonds. Tech.eu reports that its platform combines issuance, dealing, safekeeping and settlement within a regulated operation. Its commercial aim is to reduce the expense and complexity of raising capital while widening investors’ access to European opportunities.

The company operates a DLT Trading and Settlement System under the EU DLT Pilot Regime and separately holds a pan-European MiFID brokerage licence. Pilkis told Tech.eu that only four systems in Europe have the trading-and-settlement designation. DLT provides the shared records used to track transactions and ownership, while Axiology’s regulatory status allows several stages of the securities process to sit within one infrastructure.

Securing that designation required more than approval from Lithuania’s regulator, Pilkis said. The European Securities and Markets Authority was involved in the assessment, while the European Central Bank examined the settlement arrangements, including the process by which transactions become final. That regulatory work is an important part of the platform’s development, distinct from building its software.

Axiology’s involvement in central bank settlement experiments predates the Pontes launch. The Eurosystem started investigating DLT-based wholesale settlement in 2024, and Pilkis said Axiology took part in spring 2024 tests of the Bundesbank’s trigger solution. He told Tech.eu that the company had worked with the German central bank from near the start of its own existence, demonstrating transactions and connectivity with TARGET.

Pontes serves a different purpose from the proposed retail digital euro. The latter is intended for everyday payments; Pontes concerns settlement in capital markets. The money moving through TARGET is held at central banks, rather than being a commercial bank liability or a privately issued asset such as a stablecoin. That distinction is central to the service’s role in wholesale finance.

Pilkis points to payment risk and smaller issuers

Pilkis told Tech.eu that stablecoins’ credit and liquidity risks become particularly important when payments are large. His assessment draws on two years at the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures in Basel, where he worked on the G20 cross-border payments programme, including stablecoin research. He cited a stablecoin falling to 87 cents against its intended dollar value as an illustration of why price instability is problematic for substantial financial transactions.

He also sees a policy risk if central bank infrastructure fails to accommodate new trading systems. Although DLT operators remain small relative to established market infrastructures, Pilkis argued that tokenised markets could grow quickly. Without access to central bank money, those businesses would find other ways to settle, potentially reducing its use and leaving more securities transactions exposed to private settlement risks.

On the technology side, Pilkis believes smaller suppliers can offer institutions and regulators faster delivery. He attributed Axiology’s appeal partly to a technical team able to implement changes quickly and respond promptly to customers. That is his assessment of the company’s contribution, rather than a delivery benchmark reported by Tech.eu.

Pilkis identified national divisions in Europe’s financial infrastructure as another obstacle. He told Tech.eu that these boundaries complicate efforts to create a Capital Markets Union, whereas Axiology was developed to operate across Europe from the outset. His position is that replacing technology alone will not resolve the market’s fragmentation if new systems remain organised around separate national markets.

Smaller borrowers are another potential beneficiary, in Pilkis’s view. He said European fixed-income issuers seeking less than roughly €100 million can struggle to obtain ratings and reach a broad investor base. More efficient digital issuance could make smaller transactions commercially practical and give investors access to a wider range of securities. That remains an intended benefit, not a quantified outcome of the Pontes launch.

Bank recruitment and bond issuance shape the next phase

Axiology’s immediate commercial task is to recruit more banks across the EU. Pilkis told Tech.eu that its network currently centres on brokerages and crowdfunding platforms. The company already works with commercial banking partners in the Baltics and sees the Pontes connection as an opportunity to broaden that customer base beyond its existing regional relationships.

Fixed income is an early market to watch, according to Pilkis. He pointed to German public-sector initiatives, particularly those involving KfW, as a likely source of issuance. He also highlighted French interest in bringing some Negotiable European Commercial Paper activity onto DLT infrastructure. These are indications of potential demand, not a disclosed schedule of transactions for Axiology.

The company is separately working with banks on using Pontes to settle asset movements between entities belonging to the same banking group. It is also discussing sovereign borrowing with European treasuries. According to Pilkis, those public-sector conversations concern reaching different investors and lowering issuance costs, but the pace is slow. He sees France and Germany taking a more active approach while other countries monitor developments.

For businesses seeking capital across Europe, the distinction between technical access and market adoption will matter. Pontes provides a settlement option, but Axiology has not supplied a timetable for the treasury projects or a measured reduction in issuers’ costs. Companies considering the platform will therefore need to assess the banking and investor relationships available for their particular transaction, rather than treating the launch as evidence of an established financing channel at scale.

Further out, Pilkis wants users of tokenised markets to be able to create programmable functions themselves, rather than depending on a commercial bank to configure services for them. He told Tech.eu that this could support business models not available through today’s arrangements. His five-to-ten-year horizon was an aspiration for that capability to emerge, not a promised product release date.