SIA, in partnership with Colt, has won the tender to connect Italian depository Monte Titoli to Target2-Securities (T2S), the new centralised European platform for the settlement of domestic and cross-border securities transactions.
Monte Titoli, which boasts a large pool of international customers including over 400 banks and brokers and offers services to more than 2000 issuers, will be the largest central securities depository taking part in the first phase of migration to T2S, scheduled for June 2015.
As part of the contract, SIA and Colt will also provide a message broker service for seamless integration of Monte Titoli business applications to the T2S central platform.
Massimo Arrighetti, CEO of SIA, comments: "The decision by Monte Titoli to call on the support of SIA in the migration from the current domestic platform to T2S strengthens our collaboration with London Stock Exchange Group as its partner of choice also for post-trading and confirms SIA's role as a competitive player in Europe."
SIA and Colt are competing with financial messaging network Swift for delivery of value added network connections to the central T2S platform. Swift has so far signed up Clearstream, Euroclear, Iberclear, Interbolsa, KDD Central Securities Clearing Corporation, SIX Securities Services, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale Securities Services for its VAN.
According to forecasts from the European Central Bank, T2S will be capable of handling a daily average of over one million securities transactions and contribute to a significant reduction in cross-border settlement costs.