Brussels, 21/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 21 August, the European Central Bank (ECB) identified four systemically important payment systems - TARGET2, EURO1, STEP2-T and CORE(FR).
The clearing and settlement platform “TARGET2” in the Eurozone will be operated by the European central bank system from 2015. The operations of the platforms EURO1 and STEP2-T are the responsibility of EBA CLEARING, a company in which 62 European and international banks are shareholders. The platform CORE(FR) is the initiative of six major French banks.
These systems were identified according to the combination of at least two of the following four main criteria: the value of payments settled by these platforms, market share in the clearing and settlement sector, cross-border relevance and provision of services to other financial infrastructures.
The four payment systems comply with the new ECB regulation on control requirements for systemically important payment systems. In force since 12 August, this regulation aims to guarantee the effective management of many risks, for instance those of a legal, operational or liquidity nature. It has been reinforced compared to the rules previously in force and provides for penalties and corrective measures in the event of non-adherents.
This is the first time that the ECB has made use of its regulatory powers in the field of payment systems oversight, the European institution states in a press release.
“With this regulation, Europe is consolidating international practice for the oversight of systemically important payment systems (SIPS) into EU law”, as with past efforts for the supervision of central counterparties and trade repositories, explained Benoît Coeuré, member of the ECB's Executive Board. (MB)