Ignazio Visco: The TARGET2-Securities Framework Agreement

09 May 2012

Statement by Mr Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy, at the event of the signatures to the T2S Framework Agreement. "Banca d'Italia is firmly committed to the success of this project and to fulfil the expectations of the Eurosystem and of the European market community."

The reduction of settlement costs that will be achieved thanks to the economies of scale which this project will bring about has the potential to greatly enhance the competitiveness of our marketplace. Furthermore, by harmonising the settlement process T2S will stimulate competition among CSDs, and between them and the large custodian banks. Perhaps even more important is the role that T2S will play as a catalyst for further harmonisation of the European financial market, at a time when the design of a new European CSD Regulation is striving to remove legal barriers. We are therefore aware that a significant signal is being delivered today. It is a signal of confidence in the importance of the area’s financial integration, against some tendencies of financial fragmentation that we are currently observing. Not so far is the day in which the very concept of cross-border transactions in Europe will lose any meaning.

The aim is to balance the rights of the Eurosystem – as system owner and operator – with the rights of the CSDs which will adopt T2S, and with those of the central banks which eventually will provide their currencies to T2S. At the same time, the needs of securities market users will have to be respected.

Full speech

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