TARGET, a new system that allows the settlement of payments in euros and in real-time, which provides greater security, went live today, indicated the Bank of Portugal (BdP).
“After five years of intense joint work at the European level, the new TARGET, the Eurosystem platform dedicated to the settlement of euro payments in real-time, went live today,” the financial supervisor announced in a statement today, noting that this system is a step towards the “interconnection and modernization” of payment infrastructures in Europe.
This platform (TARGET — ‘Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system’) replaces TARGET 2, which has operated since 2007.
TARGET consists of four services — ‘Central Liquidity Management’, for the settlement of central bank transactions; ‘Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)’, for the settlement of large-value payments; TARGET 2 ‘Securities’, for the payment of securities transactions; and TARGET ‘Instant Payment Settlements’, for the payment of immediate transfers in central bank money.
“With the new TARGET, the Eurosystem optimizes the services it makes available to financial institutions, extends the payment settlement timetable, implements a technological renovation with the adoption of the ‘ISO 2022 standard”, increases service security in the face of emerging threats and, most importantly, continues to ensure the settlement of payments in central bank money in a more secure, immediate, final and irrevocable manner,” underlined the institution led by Mário Centeno.
Last year, TARGET 2, which has more than 40,000 participants, processed 102.6 million payments worth 570.539 billion euros.
Also, in 2022, the Portuguese component of the system, operated by the BdP, operated two million operations, amounting to 10.6 billion euros, corresponding to 51 times the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
