SIA and COLT to Connect Hungary’s CSD KELER to T2S
A partnership between SIA Group and IT services group Colt has been awarded the contract to connect Hungarian central securities depository KELER to TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the new single European platform for settling transactions in domestic and cross-border securities.
KELER is owned 53.33% by the Central Bank of Hungary (CBH) and 46.67% by the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) and provides wholesale services and infrastructure to the players and intermediaries of the Hungarian capital markets. It will migrate to T2S in the third phase planned for September 2016, and will be among the first central securities depositories (CSDs) in Central and Eastern Europe to access the platform directly.
T2S, a project promoted by the European Central Bank (ECB), will be managed by four central banks – Banca d’Italia, Deutsche Bundesbank, Banque de France and Banco de Espana – and is one of the initiatives for the creation of the single European market following the euro, TARGET2, the single euro payments area (SEPA) and the Payment Services Directive (PSD).
The ECB expects T2S to be capable of handling a daily average of over one million securities transactions, also contributing to a significant reduction in cross-border settlement costs.
“The success in the KELER bid, in partnership with Colt, further strengthens SIA’s position at international level and particularly in Central and Eastern Europe where we have a portfolio of around 60 customers,” said Gian Bruno Mazzi, senior vice president (SVP) of SIA.
“This project confirms SIA’s ability to complete, in a short timescale, innovative and complex projects that permit our customers to focus exclusively on their business. Our technology infrastructures will carry the securities transactions of Hungary, a country with positive economic growth trends in which we are already operating through our subsidiary SIA Central Europe.”