Insights

The Eurosystem has communicated the milestones in the lead up to the final migration on November 2022. The main changes can be summarised as follows:

1. No milestones to reach until March 2021
2. New milestones have been added (User Testing activities started, Training for user testing started, Network connectivity tests on production started, Network connectivity tests on production completed)
3. Milestones not completed in 2020 will be postponed between 8 and 12 months.

With specific regard to the most operational impacts:

• NSP selection and contract preparation to be completed by 31 March 2021
• Software development for the required adaptation changes to TARGET2 to be completed by 30 June 2021
• Testing of the internal applications to be completed by 31 August 2021
• User Testing activities to be started by 1 December 2021

In addition the ECB has communicated that, as disclosed by the ECB’s Governing Council in July:

• All PSPs which have joined the SCTInst scheme and are reachable in TARGET2 should also become reachable in a TIPS central bank money liquidity account, either as a participant or as a reachable party (i.e. through the account of another PSP which is a participant)
• All ACHs offering instant payment services should migrate their technical accounts from TARGET2 to TIPS.

In order to implement the new European Instant Payments interoperability paradigm, a project has been launched starting in January 2021 where all participants must be live by 15 December 2021 and follow the additional milestones to ensure their go-live readiness in a synchronised manner across all national communities. In summary the TARGET2 participants have today:

• 6 months to confirm, review or fine-tune their NSP choice for TARGET2
• 9 months to complete TARGET2 developments and 11 months to finalise testing
• Less than 15 months to set up their TIPS central bank money liquidity account

Many banks will be using the TARGET2/T2S Consolidation delay to absorb the impacts of COVID-19 priorities and the implementation of TIPS accounts. However, the extra time will allow participants to improve their digital transformation and consider cloud strategies, improve data management and analytics, and embrace ISO 20022 more deeply and extensively. TAS is ready to support market participants ensure the best possible implementation of these projects, focusing on:

• NSP access in Cloud
• Intraday Liquidity
• Payments transformation
• Instant payments management in the new framework

Find out more on our dedicated page or get in touch with our experts

Mario Mendia, TAS Group’s International Markets SVP and Raphael Barisaac, Global Head of Cash Management and Global Co-head of Trade at Unicredit, were recently invited by Fintech Finance to speak with Ali Paterson in his Virtual Arena.

The topic was the dynamic European Payments scene today, how it’s evolving, the COVID-effect on payments, how ISO20022 is set to be a game-changer, and the challenges (and opportunities) of the T2/T2S Consolidation project.

Mario Mendia offered viewers valuable insights and shared his views on the upcoming changes to the Eurosystem, where TAS Group is playing an active role in the T2/T2S Consolidation Project.

In case you missed the Fintech Finace Virtual Arena discussion on the European Payments Ecosystem, you can watch it  on our YouTube channel.

 

The ECMS (Eurosystem Collateral Management System), whose go-live is scheduled for November 2022, will complete the new consolidated structure of the Eurosystem's market infrastructures, aimed at facilitating efficient liquidity and collateral management, and contributing to the realization of the so-called Capital Markets Union. The new ECMS platform will replace the current 19 IT procedures of the National Central Banks (NCBs) for credit operations (monetary policy refinancing and intraday credit in TARGET2), leaving the responsibility of the individual NCBs to manage contractual and operational relations with counterparties, central custodians and triparty agents. TAS Group has been investing for some time in the evolution of its solution, Aquarius, to offer the market a Liquidity Management System that simplifies and centralizes the operational processes and U2A and A2A interactions of the Treasuries with TARGET Services. On 19th May, TAS Group and its partners, Accenture and KPMG, provided Italian market operators with an orientation framework with which to approach the ECMS Project. Over 140 participants representing 28 private and 3 public operators followed the webinar on ECMS, which was considered very useful also in view of the "virtual" event organized by the Bank of Italy today. Follow us to stay updated on the collaborative path led by TAS Group in partnership  with Accenture and KPMG 

Need some expert help with ECMS or T2/T2S Consolidation? Get in touch 

TAS Group has been closely following the developments of the new Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) as it has been doing for the T2 / T2S Consolidation milestone, and is actively helping banks to prepare, especially in managing collateral and treasury funding.

The ECMS, scheduled to go live in November 2022, will replace the existing individual systems of the 19 national central banks that are currently managing assets used as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations.

Our Aquarius Liquidity Management platform already manages the Central Bank’s  Pooling Account and will guarantee in the future all the features currently being specified for the ECMS, in synergy with the liquidity management and securities settlement functions already covered by the solution.

Follow us to stay updated on the collaborative path led by TAS Group in partnership  with Accenture and KPMG 

Need some expert help with ECMS or T2/T2S Consolidation? Get in touch 

Milan, 21 January 2020 - TAS SpA (BIT: TAS), a leading European provider of software and services for banking and financial applications, today announced that already 12 banks and interbank service centers have chosen to adopt TAS Group’s solutions to prepare for the Target2/T2S Consolidation Project, that will go live in November 2022. A further 11 market operators have to date signed with TAS Group since the first contract assignment by CASSA DEPOSITI E PRESTITI in Q2 2019, who selected Aquarius to manage the Target2/T2S Consolidation Project and its impacts pre- and post-migration. For over 20 years, TAS Group has been assisting the Eurosystem's Commercial and Central Banks in harmonizing infrastructures, from the Italian RTGS BIREL migration to the first Pan-European TARGET infrastructure, up to the latest evolutions of the European Central Bank's T2, TIPS, T2S and Collateral Management infrastructures. Traditionally renowned for its network management solutions, such as TAS Network Gateway, today TAS Group is rapidly increasing its market presence also thanks to Aquarius, the platform that strategically accelerates the digital transformation of Treasuries by facilitating migrations towards the ISO 20022 standard, instant settlement and real-time intraday liquidity management. The consolidation of the Target2 and T2-Securities infrastructures will happen with a big-bang approach that will mark the birth of a new real-time settlement infrastructure for cash, securities and collateral, with a single entry point for all European Financial markets operators (Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway, ESMIG), and the aim of increasing efficiency and optimizing liquidity management for all TARGET services. Impacts deriving from the Consolidation Project requirements will affect the banks’ treasury role significantly. However, regulatory compliance can be turned into an opportunity for banks to deliver real digital transformation by adopting technologies that allow them to automate manual activities, integrate richer information and evolve legacy applications to take advantage of real-time business intelligence on intraday liquidity and forecasts. “The market has understood that regulatory projects can present resources and opportunities for digital transformation in banks and trusts TAS for its innovative solutions and skills. Thanks also to the excellent contribution of our Partners, to date 12 customers have already adopted our solutions to prepare for the migration to the new T2-T2S system," said Valentino Bravi, CEO, TAS Group. “Our deals won portfolio is rapidly increasing, and in the coming months we expect to gain over 80% of the Italian market and to acquire new international references as well.” Last year, TAS Group, together with KPMG and Accenture, collected and coordinated an Interbank Working Group for the T2/T2S Consolidation Project to which over 30 market operators have joined, confirming itself as the undisputed leader in terms of technology enabling the centralized management of securities, cash and collateral. Download the press release