Second migration group connects to TARGET2

Today the Eurosystem announced that the second migration group – comprising the national central banks and the respective TARGET user communities in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain – has connected to TARGET2.

TARGET2, the single shared technical platform used for settlement in real time of predominantly high-value euro payments in central bank money, was successfully launched on 19 November 2007. It will successively replace the decentralised technical platforms operating under the name TARGET (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system).

TARGET2 is an integrated market solution provided by the Eurosystem, the central banking system of the euro area consisting of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks of the European Union Member States that have adopted the euro as their common currency. TARGET2 is run by the Eurosystem under the responsibility of the Governing Council of the ECB. Three Eurosystem central banks – Banca d’Italia, Banque de France and Deutsche Bundesbank – jointly provide the single technical infrastructure, the Single Shared Platform (SSP) of TARGET2, and operate it on behalf of the Eurosystem.

More detailed information on TARGET2 can be found on the ECB’s website at http://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/target2/.