The lack of harmonisation in the post-trade environment has been a big issue for Europe, as it increases costs and risks particularly in the cross-border environment. In this respect, the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) project, officially launched by the Eurosystem in July 2008, will be an important step to achieve cross-border settlement harmonisation.

T2S will significantly reshape the European post-trading industry by providing a single pan-European platform for securities settlement in central bank money. T2S will ensure real-time DvP and settle across borders by employing the so-called “integrated model”: both securities accounts and cash accounts will be integrated on one single IT platform, so that only one interface will be necessary between the CSDs and the T2S platform.

T2S is being implemented gradually. All CSDs participating in the project have been migrating to the common platform in waves, starting from June 2015. The platform was successfully launched on 22 June 2015. After the successful roll-out of wave 2 in March 2016, 7 CSDs are now connected to T2S. The remaining 16 CSDs participating in the project will join in 3 further waves with the last group of CSDs scheduled to migrate in September 2017.  

For further information on the T2S project, please refer to the ECB website – T2S. An overview of the latest T2S developments and other market infrastructure related updates can also be found in the latest edition of ICMA’s Quarterly Report.

Within ICMA the ERCC Operations Group has been closely following the T2S project and the gradual migration process. The Group has produced a number of documents on this issue and the related CCBM2 project (now discontinued).




The Eurosystem's vision for the future of Europe’s financial market infrastructure

In October 2015, the ECB first announced the Eurosystem’s Vision 2020 initiative on the future of Europe’s financial market infrastructure. The project covers three main pillars:
  • Pillar 1: Explore synergies between the TARGET2 and TARGET2-Securities platforms run by the Eurosystem
  • Pillar 2: Support the development of a pan-European instant payments solution
  • Pillar 3: Assess the possibility of harmonising Eurosystem collateral management arrangements and making the mobilisation by counterparties of collateral for use in Eurosystem credit operations more efficient.
In the context of this initiative, the ECB launched a first public consultation on 15 February 2016. This consultative report focuses only on the first pillar mentioned above and requests feedback on some ideas in relation to the services that the Eurosystem currently offers in the context of its Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and on potential benefits for the market of further integrating the T2S and the T2 platforms.

On 4 April 2016, the ICMA ERCC Operations Group submitted a response to the RTGS consultation, which is available here.




Joint report by AFME and ICMA on the lessons learned from T2S wave 1

20 January 2016 AFME and ICMA have published a joint paper on “T2S Wave 1 – Review and Request for Action Following Migration of Italian Market to T2S”, which also includes a short section on specific repo impacts. To access the report, click here.
 



ERC* Operations Group briefing note on the implication for the repo product related to the projected T2S ‘go live’ of Monte Titoli

10 August 2015  ERC* Operations Group has published a briefing note on the implication for the repo product related to the projected  ‘go live’ for Monte Titoli in TARGET2-Securities (expected at the end of August 2015). The note focuses on three key repo aspects:  (i) Off-leg rep mismatches; (ii) Term repos;  and (iii) Standard settlement instructions.

To view the briefing note, click here.




ICMA ERC*/Rule Financial webinar on Target2 Securities

ICMA’s European Repo Council (ERC)* commissioned Rule Financial to carry out a market survey to assess the level of market preparedness for, and attitudes towards, the forthcoming market infrastructure changes relating to T2S. The objective of the survey was to identify what market participants believe are the key practical market changes resulting from the introduction of T2S. The questions that were asked were designed to identify the challenges being faced as market participants prepare for T2S and to highlight those areas where further clarity would benefit the market as a whole.

On 10 November 2014 an ICMA ERC/Rule Financial webinar provided ICMA members with an opportunity to hear about the results of this work.  A playback of the one hour webinar is available here. Please enter your name, email address and password: ERCT2S#.  To download a copy of the presentation, please click here.




Previous ICMA contributions on T2S and CCBM2:

15 August 2008
ICMA European Repo Council ERC* feedback statement

24 April 2008
ICMA European Repo Committee** response to the CCBM2 URD

7 April 2008
ICMA European Repo Committee** response to the ECB consultation paper on ‘T2S User Requirements Documents’

18 December 2007
Joint Letter by the ERC*, Clearstream and Euroclear to the ECB on the Integration of Tri-Party Services in CCBM2

22 November 2007
ICMA & ESF & other associations’ note on the T2S Draft User Requirement Document

22 November 2007
ICMA & ESF & other associations’ note on national specificities in T2S

19 September 2007
Presentation by Jean-Michel Godeffroy (ECB) to the ERC Council

22 June 2007
Response from the ECB (Mrs. Tumpel-Gugerell) to the ERC

11 May 2007
ICMA European Repo Committee** Letter to the ECB on Repo Market Representation in T2S Committees

27 April 2007
ICMA, ESF & LIBA Letter to the ECB on Securities Sector Representation in T2S Committees

23 March 2007
ICMA & ESF & other associations’ Comments on T2S Governance Proposals

22 March 2007
ICMA European Repo Committee** Letter on T2S Steering Committee

31 January 2007
ICMA European Repo Committee** Letter on T2S Governance

31 January 2007
ESF Comments on T2S Governance

19 January 2007
ESF Comments on T2S Feasibilty Study

10 January 2007
ESF Assessment of T2S Impact Analysis

4 January 2007
ESF Input to T2S Feasibility Study

4 October 2006
Presentation by Marc Bayle (ECB) to the ERC Council

15 September 2006
ICMA European Repo Committee** Response to ECB on T2S Project

*On 4 December 2015, the name of the European Repo Council (ERC) was changed to the European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC).

**On 4 December 2015, the name of the European Repo Committee was changed to the European Repo and Collateral Committee.

 
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