Money in Transition: Digitalisation and Innovation in Payments

European Central Bank single-day Eurosystem-led conference on the future of money, payments and finance infrastructure in the euro area. The event convenes ECB Executive Board members, national central bank governors from across the Eurosystem, EU supervisory authorities and senior representatives from commercial banks, payment scheme operators and the tokenisation industry. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, delivers the opening keynote; Piero Cipollone chairs the digital-finance session; Thomas Vlasopoulos, Director General Market Infrastructure and Payments, delivers closing remarks.

What happens at Money in Transition

• Four panel sessions covering Fostering Digital Finance in Europe, Wholesale Digital Money and the Evolution of Tokenised Markets, Borderless B2B Payments, and Retail Payments in Europe.
• Two keynote speeches interspersed between the panel blocks, complementing the President's opening address.
• Eurosystem-level policy dialogue between national central bank governors, finance ministry officials and European Commission staff on near-term direction.
• Infrastructure-operator panel examining the role of TARGET Services in supporting tokenised settlement and integrated capital markets.

Who attends

The room is dominated by Eurosystem-level decision-makers: ECB Executive Board members, governors of national central banks (Banque de France, Bundesbank, Banca d'Italia, De Nederlandsche Bank, Banco de España), supervisory authorities (EBA, ESMA, SRB), Treasury and finance ministry officials from EU member states, and senior representatives from systemically-important commercial banks (BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, Santander, UniCredit, ING). Scheme operators (EBA Clearing, EPC, SIX, Euronext), wholesale tokenisation infrastructure providers, and a curated set of MEPs and European Commission staff working on the Savings and Investments Union round out the attendance. This is not a fintech startup pitch event and not a B2C consumer-payments conference — it is a policy and infrastructure forum at the apex of Eurosystem decision-making.

Dominant themes at Money in Transition 2026

• Digital Euro preparation-phase deliverables and merchant onboarding pathways
• Wholesale CBDC and Eurosystem exploratory work on DLT-based settlement
• TARGET Services evolution and T2/T2S interoperability with tokenised markets
• MiCA implementation and stablecoin supervision as the regulation enters its second year of application
• DORA operational resilience requirements for payments infrastructure providers
• Tokenised deposits and the role of commercial bank money in wholesale digital settlement
• Cross-border B2B payments, ISO 20022 standardisation and PSP interoperability
• Savings and Investments Union and the role of integrated post-trade infrastructure
• The retail euro payments landscape, fragmentation across national schemes and the path toward a resilient euro ecosystem

Planning to attend

Frankfurt is the natural home of the Eurosystem and Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is roughly fifteen minutes from the ECB premises in the Ostend district near Frankfurt East. Hotels in the central business district and Sachsenhausen fill six to eight weeks ahead, especially around the ECB's Governing Council calendar; book early when the conference overlaps with policy-decision weeks. For B2B vendors, time outreach with the broader Frankfurt finance calendar that includes Euro Finance Week and recurring ESMA technical workshops.

Use the expense calculator below to estimate the total cost of attending — registration, flights, hotels, meals, and ground transport — based on your origin city.