Clifford Chance advises the European Stability Mechanism on benchmark €1 billion digitally native notes issuance

Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) in connection with the issuance of its inaugural digitally native notes under its Debt Issuance Programme. The notes were issued on 2 November 2026 and are admitted to trading on the regulated market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

The transaction was carried out as part of the Eurosystem’s Pontes initiative, which enables wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to be settled in central bank money. As the first benchmark issuance by a European supranational issuer to be settled through Pontes, the transaction represents an important step in the development of Europe’s digital capital markets. Investors were able to take advantage of the decision of the Eurosystem earlier this year to accept marketable assets issued in central securities depositaries (CSDs) using DLT as eligible collateral for Eurosystem credit operations.

The notes have an aggregate principal amount of €1 billion, bear interest at a rate of 3.375% per annum and are due on 8 April 2030. Banco Santander, S.A., DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main, HSBC Continental Europe and Société Générale acted as Joint Lead Managers on the transaction.

The cross-border Clifford Chance team was led by partners Steve Jacoby and Cristina Freudenberger and counsel Alexander Tollast, supported by counsels Boika Deleva and Dominik Schöneberger, along with Dominik Schlarb, Lilli Neubauer and Angélique Torre.