26 April 2010

In March 2007 the Governing Council of the ECB decided that T2S was feasible from an operational, technical, economic and legal perspective and established the T2S Advisory Group (AG). It initially mandated the AG to define the T2S user requirements, but over time the AG has developed into a forum that provides valuable advice to the Eurosystem on the market needs regarding T2S. A major asset of the AG is its ambition to solve existing difficulties in a consensual way. In fact, the AG has managed to solve almost all relevant matters by consensus and has only had to vote formally on three occasions so far. The AG will also remain an important pillar in the future governance of T2S.

T2S Advisory Group

Composition

The members of the AG are composed of three stakeholder groups: central securities depositories (CSDs), users and central banks. CSDs and users are represented equally to ensure an equilibrium of market views. Besides its full members, the AG also consists of a number of observers, making a total of almost 90 participants. The chairman of the AG is Jean-Michel Godeffroy, who is also the Chairman of the T2S Programme Board (see T2S OnLine No 1, summer 2009).

Responsibilities

The AG has been instrumental in defining the T2S user requirements and its work has contributed to the completion of a number of technical documents such as the General Functional Specifications and the User Requirements Document. The AG also addresses harmonisation issues in the field of securities settlement related to T2S and assists in the discussion concerning policy issues, e.g. the pricing framework, articulating the market needs regarding T2S.

Further information on the AG, its meetings, agendas and members, etc., is available on a dedicated page.