Banks should begin building digital-asset and tokenisation capabilities even while the eventual market structure remains uncertain, Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti said on October 23. Her message was not a call for a large speculative commitment. Instead, she argued for limited experiments and investments that remain useful under several possible technological outcomes.

Waiting carries its own cost

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Institut International d'Études Bancaires in Milan, Scotti said waiting can have value when investment is hard to reverse and uncertainty may resolve over time. But delay can also postpone learning, weaken an institution's ability to influence emerging standards and close off future opportunities. She recommended modular systems, common data standards, digital-asset expertise and stronger links across treasury, payments and securities functions.

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Reuters reported that Scotti urged lenders to start on a limited scale, using flexibility and staged commitments to combine caution with innovation without choosing one technological path too early. ANSA separately reported her warning that banks which wait for the ecosystem to be fully defined may lose the capacity to shape it. The emphasis is on organizational learning and optionality, not on buying cryptocurrencies or predicting which token will succeed.

Tokenisation could connect fragmented functions

Scotti said tokenisation could bring issuance, trading, settlement, custody, servicing and collateral management onto more integrated networks. Smart contracts and common infrastructure may shorten transaction chains and reduce reconciliation. Those benefits are not automatic, however. If institutions build incompatible proprietary platforms, assets and liquidity could become trapped in separate systems even when transactions move faster inside each network.

The market is still small compared with traditional finance. Citing European Central Bank research, the speech put tokenised assets on public blockchains at €38 billion in February 2026, up from €7.4 billion at the start of 2024. That compares with global financial assets of €241 trillion at the end of 2025. The estimate excludes some activity, but it illustrates why adoption and business models remain unsettled.

A two-tier monetary system remains central

Scotti argued that digital technology does not remove the need for a public monetary anchor alongside private intermediation. Central banks provide settlement assets, infrastructure and safeguards, while banks create money through lending, manage risk and liquidity, and maintain customer relationships. For commercial bank money to retain a central role, it must be usable in the digital environments where customers and financial markets operate.

She pointed to the digital euro, Pontes and Appia as public initiatives supporting that transition. Pontes connects distributed-ledger platforms to existing TARGET services so tokenised transactions can settle in central-bank money. Appia explores a longer-term, interoperable architecture for tokenised assets, liquidity and collateral. Scotti said public systems can provide foundations, but private intermediaries will still decide which services and business models create value.

What banks must decide

Banks now face choices about which customer interfaces to control, which distinctive functions to keep and where to rely on platforms or technology providers. They must also plan how liquidity and collateral will move between conventional and tokenised markets. Scotti's recommendation leaves room to scale successful pilots or abandon weak ones as evidence develops. The unresolved issue is whether banks and authorities can agree on interoperable standards before closed networks become entrenched.

Sources

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