Central Bank of Malta Joins the Cash SSP
The Central Bank of Malta has joined the Cash Single Shared Platform (SSP), becoming the eighth eurosystem national central bank that will be using the logistical cash management IT system. This system is also operational at the central banks of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Ireland, Cyprus and Latvia. The Central Bank of Malta’s accession to Cash SSP means that it will not need to invest in its own system. At the same time, this represents a further step in the harmonisation of currency supply throughout the eurosystem.
Cash SSP, which is designed for cash operations, makes use of modern IT to handle the exchange of notes and coins with the commercial banks and to automate the process for the announcements for lodgements and withdrawals of currency. It offers functionality to track the lodged and withdrawn currency, and interfacing with existing banknote processing (sorting) machines, general ledger applications, accounting systems and local and global payment systems.
Cash SSP currently supports a number of European System of Central Banks (ESCB) functions, such as reporting through the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Currency Information System, EXDI (data exchange between national central banks) and the ECB’s Data Exchange for Cash Services (DECS) system for cross border and bulk transports.