TARGET Services: advanced market infrastructure for Europe

In November this year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of TARGET2 – the Eurosystem’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system. TARGET2 is a key element of the European integration process and its technical infrastructure has formed the basis for the development of TARGET2-Securities (T2S). The T2S project was successfully completed on 18 September 2017 when the central securities depositories of the final migration wave connected to the securities settlement platform. This marked another key milestone in the market infrastructure integration process.

The new TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service is the next step in this integration process. The service will be developed as an extension of TARGET2 and is planned to go live in November 2018. Following a market consultation earlier this year, the TIPS user requirements were finalised in July and the project has entered the development phase.

Moreover, the Eurosystem is considering further consolidation between TARGET2 and T2S in order to achieve additional synergies and reduced operational costs.

TARGET2, T2S and the new TIPS service will closely interact in their daily operations and from now on they will come under a new umbrella called TARGET Services.

Take up the #TIPSapp Challenge

TIPS will be the back-end of instant payments. It will be a technical solution that makes it possible to send and receive payments in a split second. It will be offered as a service to the banking community and will reach the European citizens and businesses via their banks.

The European Central Bank (ECB) invites you to develop a mobile app compliant with the TIPS user requirements, which will allow the banks to deliver the service to the end-users. You can get the chance to present your app to representatives of the financial industry at an event organised by the ECB at its premises in Frankfurt am Main. Check out the #TIPSapp webpage for more details.