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TARGET2-Securities

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Not to be confused with TS2, TSS, or TTS.

TARGET2-Securities, in shorthand T2S, is the Eurosystem's platform for securities settlement in central bank money.[1] T2S offers centralised delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement across several European securities markets, without being itself a central securities depository (CSD) since it does not offer CSD services such as custody or asset servicing.[2]: 2 

T2S is one of the Eurosystem's TARGET Services, together with T2 and TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) for cash payments.

Background

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Historically, financial market infrastructures in Europe were created to meet the requirements of national financial markets. In most cases, there were one or two dominant players at each stage of the value chain: typically one stock exchange for trading, one central counterparty (CCP) for clearing and at least one CSD for settlement. Furthermore, these national infrastructures were primarily designed to manage securities denominated in the national currency. Securities settlement across Europe thus remained costly and cumbersome.

Despite the introduction of the euro in 1999, the provision of post-trading services (i.e., clearing and settlement) remained heavily fragmented along national lines. For example, there were still 19 CSDs operating in the euro area in 2009 and almost 40 in the 27 countries of the EU. This situation was viewed as encouraging each country's financial market to remain domestically oriented, thus being detrimental to the aim of market integration. Investors continued to invest mostly in domestic securities, and as a result, the euro-area financial market could not fully benefit from the risk diversification and competition benefits that arise from having a single currency. These barriers which provoke a considerable competitive disadvantage for European capital markets were identified in a report by the Giovannini Group led by Alberto Giovannini in 2003.[3][4]

Some initiatives by the European Commission to remove impediments to competition between national markets have included the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR). T2S as a pan-European platform was intended to complement these existing initiatives by boosting competition, increasing price transparency, and harmonising practices across Europe.

History

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After market consultations and a decision by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), the project was launched in 2008 and the platform started operations on 22 June 2015.[1] The development and operation of T2S was assigned to four central banks of the Eurosystem—those of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, with the ECB providing project coordination. The T2S Framework Agreement, negotiated between CSDs and the Eurosystem, has been signed by 24 CSDs,[5] of which 19 migrated to the T2S platform in four waves between June 2015 and February 2017.[6]

These were, in alphabetical order of countries: OeKB CSD (Austria), CIK / Euroclear Belgium and NBB-SSS (Belgium), VP Securities (later EuroNext Securities Copenhagen, Denmark), Nasdaq CSD (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Euroclear France, Clearstream Banking AG (Germany), BOGS (Greece), KELER (Hungary), Monte Titoli [it] (later EuroNext Securities Milan, Italy), LuxCSD (Luxembourg), Malta Stock Exchange (Malta), Euroclear Netherlands, Interbolsa (later EuroNext Securities Porto, Portugal), Depozitarul Central (Romania), CDCP (Slovakia), KDD (Slovenia), Iberclear (Spain) as well as SIX SIS (Switzerland).[7]

In addition, the Danish RTGS Kronos2 was connected to T2S on 29 October 2018, allowing T2S to settle the cash leg of a securities transaction in Danish krones.[1]

In October, 2020, T2S and the associated ECB payments system TARGET2 experienced an outage for nearly 11 hours. Not long before, Euronext NV had also experienced outages.[8]

On 11 September 2023, five more CSDs connected to T2S, namely Euroclear Bank (Belgium), BNBGSSS and CDAD (Bulgaria), SKDD (Croatia), and Euroclear Finland.[9] By end-2023, there were 892 active Dedicated Cash Accounts (DCAs) for settlement in euro on the T2S platform.[1]

Operations

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Two types of accounts are located and maintained on the T2S platform: securities accounts provided by participating CSDs, and cash accounts in central bank money provided by participating central banks (i.e. National Central Banks of the Eurosystem and Danmarks Nationalbank). Thus, T2S embeds contractual relationships between central banks and individual CSDs, but not with the latter's clients who are the beneficial owners of the securities.[2]: 6  As of 2024, industry participants estimated that some T2S account maintenance functionalities had been maintained in parallel by participating CSDs, generating redundancy of processes, risks and unnecessary costs.[2]: 9  Even so, the same source assessed that T2S had significantly contributed to market practice harmonization.[2]: 10 

Central Securities Depositories

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As of late 2024, 24 CSDs were connected to T2S, of which 22 national CSDs (counting the three Baltic countries as one CSD based in Riga) and 2 international CSDs (ICSDs).[7]

National CSDs

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International CSDs

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EU-based CSDs that are not connected to T2S include the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE), Central Securities Depository Prague [cs] (CDCP), Hellenic Central Securities Depository (ATHEXCSD, part of Athens Exchange), the Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW), Euroclear Sweden (part of Euroclear), as well as Clearstream Banking SA (ICSD in Luxembourg, part of Clearstream).[10] Uniquely in the EU,[11]: 210  Ireland has no national CSD, and has been using Euroclear Bank for that purpose since 2021.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "TARGET Annual Report 2023". European Central Bank.
  2. ^ a b c d TARGET2-Securities: Review of current model and future prospects (PDF), Association for Financial Markets in Europe, 5 June 2024
  3. ^ "Second Report on EU Clearing and Settlement Arrangements", The Giovannini Group, June 2003.
  4. ^ "Payments, Securities and Derivatives, and the Role of the Eurosystem", European Central Bank, 2010.
  5. ^ "Central securities depositories (CSDs)". European Central Bank. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  6. ^ "History". European Central Bank. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) connected to T2S" (PDF), European Central Bank, retrieved 25 December 2024
  8. ^ Fairless, Tom, "Europe’s Core Payments Network Disrupted by Technical Malfunction" (subscription required), Wall Street Journal, October 28, 2020. re: Euronext's Oct. 2020 outages in WSJ (subscription required). Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  9. ^ "Euroclear Finland joined the European Central Bank's TARGET2-Securities platform". Euroclear. 12 September 2023.
  10. ^ "CSD Register" (PDF). European Securities and Markets Authority. 19 December 2024.
  11. ^ Payments and market infrastructures in the digital era (PDF), Banque de France, 2018
  12. ^ "Successful migration of Issuer CSD Services for Irish Securities from Euroclear UK & Ireland to Euroclear Bank". Euroclear. 18 March 2021.
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Sources

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