SIA, the European payments giant, has been chosen by the European Central Bank (ECB), in partnership with Colt Technology Services, for its link to the Eurosystem’s market infrastructure through a single access interface (Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway – ESMIG). Last year, SIA and Colt received one of the two ten-year concessions as Network Service Provider for ESMIG last year.
The two companies will provide the ECB with connectivity services to the payments (TARGET2 and TIPS) and securities (TARGET2-Securities) settlement platforms and the ECMS via ESMIG and the ECB has already started using the network infrastructure of SIA and Colt to carry out pilot operations with other major central banks.
The ESMIG project’s aim is for all the players in the European financial system (Central and Commercial Banks, Central Depositaries, Automated Clearing Houses and other Payment Service Providers) to directly access the platforms provided by the Eurosystem for the settlement of large-value payments TARGET2, the instant payments settlement services TIPS, the securities settlement platform TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) and possibly other new services and applications.