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On 17 November 2011 the Governing Council endorsed the Framework Agreement and the related schedules. The Framework Agreement was offered to CSDs, which have been invited to sign the contract by April 2012. Those that need more time to complete their feasibility studies have until June 2012. For more information see Editorial. The signature of the Framework Agreement is of the utmost importance for the success of the project. For this reason, in the T2S Advisory Group meeting at the end of November, the Contractual Framework will be given a “Red” risk assessment by the T2S Programme Office. This has been done not because there is a high probability that CSDs will not sign. On the contrary, the Programme Office is very confident that the CSDs and their markets have understood the benefits of the project and that they need to participate. In this respect, CSDs that decide to sign the contract early will benefit from reduced T2S prices, see below.
On 17 November 2011 the Governing Council decided to offer a financial incentive package to CSDs that sign the Framework Agreement with the Eurosystem promptly.
The “early bird” package gives the following benefits:
The extent to which a CSD can benefit from the financial package depends on when it signs the Framework Agreement and which migration wave it will be part of. All CSDs which sign by the June 2012 deadline will benefit from the waiver of the one-off entry fee. If a CSD signs already by April 2012, it will also be able to benefit from three-month free-of charge- period (if it is in the first wave) and the fee reductions by a third during the rest of the migration phase. Thus, the earlier that a CSD migrates, the longer it can benefit from the reduced prices.
If a CSD signs after June 2012, it will have to pay the one-off entry fee which is set at the rate of a quarter of the fees paid by the relevant CSD to T2S during the first year after migration. It will also not be able to benefit from the fee reductions.
The table below summarises the offer.
| Signature by April 2012 | Signature by June 2012 | Signature after June 2012 | |
| No fees for the first three months following the go-live date | X | - | - |
| A 1/3 reduction across the whole price list until the end of the last regular migration wave | X | - | - |
| Waiver of the entry fee | X | X | - |
The Eurosystem is also finalising the negotiations with non-euro area central banks that have shown continuous interest in making their national currency available for securities settlement in T2S. The aim is to offer the Currency Participation Agreement to non-euro area central banks in early 2012.
The Eurosystem has reviewed the T2S General Principles in order to place stronger emphasis on the multi-currency character of T2S and to provide assurance that all currencies in T2S will be treated on an equal basis. In line with its consensus-driven approach, the Eurosystem consulted closely with the market on this review prior to the decision by the Governing Council of 17 November 2011 on the update of the T2S General Principles.
Version 5.01 of the User Requirements Document [3.92 MB] (URD) has been recently published on the ECB’s website. The document now incorporates all the change requests approved by the Advisory Group (see List of approved/rejected change requests) since the publication of URD v5.0 on 18 February 2010.
Version 1.2 of the T2S User Detailed Functional Specifications [19.8 MB] (UDFS) has been finalised and published on the ECB’s website. The UDFS illustrate features of T2S from a business perspective, and its timely publication is a major milestone in the T2S programme plan. CSDs and national central banks can consider this version as a stable basis for their feasibility assessments for adapting to T2S. In addition, it can be used by other actors that are directly connected to T2S to design and build the interface of their information systems with T2S.
The Business Process Description (BPD) v 1.0 [3.83 MB] has also been published on the T2S website. It describes and illustrates the generic business processes involving CSDs, national central banks and other technically directly connected parties and their interaction with T2S. The BPD can be used for feasibility studies and adaptation analyses by CSDs, national central banks and other market participants considering becoming directly connected parties for the analyses and adaptation of their processes and systems. As it is written from a business perspective and includes multiple links to the T2S specification documents it provides the reader with an easy access to other T2S documentation such as the UDFS.
Dedicated Links Connectivity
On 17 November 2011, the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the Eurosystem will provide end-to-end connectivity services directly via CoreNet, the Eurosystem’s existing communication network, which has access points distributed all over Europe. The T2S Programme Board has shared the first version of the Dedicated Links Connectivity Specifications with the market. This version contains information about the technical protocol for communication with T2S using dedicated links. Please see dedicated links on connectivity specifications.
VAN (value-added network) selection
The bidding period for the selection of the VANs was closed on 30 September 2011. The bids are currently being evaluated by a selection panel chaired by the Banca d’Italia, which manages the selection process on behalf of the Eurosystem. Under current plans, the successful bidders will be announced early in 2012, and contracts should be signed by 1 February 2012.
