The TARGET2-Securities (T2S) platform has launched successfully today, as planned.
Four securities depositories are now connected to the platform for settlement of euro transactions; Bank of Greece Securities Settlement System (BOGS), Depozitarul Central (Romania), Malta Stock Exchange, and SIX SIS (Switzerland).
Yves Mersch, an executive board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), said: “This is a tangible step forward for financial integration in Europe.”
He added: “After seven years of hard work to make this happen, T2S will benefit people in 21 countries and will support the creation of a true single capital market in Europe.”
Between now and 2017, 17 more countries will connect to the platform, covering almost all euro-denominated transactions. The platform intends to reduce the cost of cross-border securities transactions in Europe, while making them more secure and increasing efficiency.
Italy’s Monte Titoli was also scheduled to go live today, however, while a solution has been put forward, it was not deemed ready for migration and the ECB has approved an extension of the testing time. Monte Titoli is now scheduled to migrate on 31 August.
This delay should aid the migration process for the Italian market, and will make sure that any issues with the new solution cannot affect the other markets on the platform or the market as a whole.
A detailed plan for Italian migration is now in development, taking in to account any potential effects to the live platform.
