Market infrastructures
Focus before the introduction of the euro: national
Payment and securities settlement systems in the EU were originally created to meet national requirements.
They remain diverse and are not aligned with the needs of a single currency. The euro area requires an
infrastructure which permits a quick and smooth flow of payments and securities at low cost.
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Re-shaping for the euro area
The financial infrastructure of the euro area (and the EU) – for payments and for trading, clearing and settlement of securities –
underwent rapid change caused by the introduction of the euro and technological
developments.
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Payment systems
The reshaping of the infrastructure has been particularly pronounced in large-value
payment systems. The creation of TARGET established a euro area-wide
real-time
gross
settlement (RTGS) system which is used for the settlement of central
bank operations, large-value interbank transfers as well as other euro
payments.
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Securities
The euro area securities infrastructure is still highly fragmented i.e. it has many providers for trading,
clearing, and settlement and they are not efficiently connected to each other. Integration would result in substantial cost savings and increased efficiency.
This prospect has already encouraged providers to move towards integration. But the process is still at an
early stage.
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