Figures

In 2011, TARGET2 processed 89,6 million payments, with a total value of €612,936 billion. This translates into a daily average of 348,505 payments, with an average daily value of €2,385 billion. The value of the payments settled in TARGET2 in some three and a half working days corresponds to the total annual GDP of the euro area.

Payments are normally divided into large-value interbank payments and low-value retail transactions.

Large-value interbank payments

Although this distinction has never been clear-cut, large-value payments systems (LVPS) mainly focus on processing wholesale interbank transactions of a high amount and great urgency in real time.

Low-value retail transactions

Retail payment systems settle mainly consumer payments of relatively low value and urgency.

Payment values

In value terms, large-value interbank transactions accounted for the vast majority (94%) of the payments settled. The remainder was made up of low-value customer transactions. 67% of the total volume of payments had a value equal to or less than €50,000, most of which can be considered as customer retail payments.

The Governing Council of the ECB chose to keep the system open "downwards" for low-value payments and to set no value floor or cap. There was no deliberate intention to process retail transactions but the Eurosystem acknowledged that this decision could contribute to the efficiency of cross-border settlement in the EU without adding costs to the system.

The main reasons for the growing preference for settlement of retail transactions in TARGET2 are:

• the advantages of a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system: i.e. time-criticality and immediate finality of the transaction;
• the additional benefits offered to TARGET2 customers: i.e. the speed of the system, the enhanced liquidity management features and the high security level;
• the fact that TARGET2 provides settlement in central bank money;
• almost any bank in Europe is reachable through TARGET2.

TARGET2 market share

TARGET2’s market share is defined as the percentage of the TARGET2 traffic compared to all traffic processed in large-value payment systems in euro. TARGET2 remains the market’s preferred system for the processing of large-value payments in euro.