SWIFT announces today that it has been admitted to the next phase of the tender process to provide connectivity services to all Eurosystem market infrastructures (also known as TARGET services).

The public tender process for ESMIG Network Service Providers was launched in late January 2019 by Banca d’Italia acting on behalf of the Eurosystem. If successful in the next phase, SWIFT will be awarded a concession to provide ESMIG connectivity services from November 2021, becoming a Network Service Provider for the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services. Combined with SWIFT’s existing connectivity to EBA CLEARING’s EURO1/STEP1, RT1 and STEP 2 services, this would allow banks to rely on SWIFT to process all of their euro payment messages – high-value payments, SEPA payments, instant payments and cross-border payments – in a secure, reliable and cost-efficient manner.

By using SWIFT to connect to TARGET Services, users will future-proof and maximise their investment, gaining a single-window for connectivity not only to the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services, but to 254 market infrastructures world-wide and to SWIFT gpi for cross-border payments.

Alain Raes, Chief Executive EMEA and Asia Pacific, SWIFT, said: “We are delighted to have completed phase one of the tender process to become a Network Service Provider for ESMIG. We look forward to working with the Eurosystem and our customers to ensure a smooth and highly successful community migration to ISO 20022 and the new ESMIG platform. This migration represents a major milestone for Europe’s market infrastructure and paves the way for further harmonisation and integration of financial and capital markets across the EU.”

SWIFT is committed to supporting its customers through their TARGET consolidation projects and the migration to ESMIG, providing high quality and competitively priced access to TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) for instant payments, TARGET2 (T2) for high value payments, TARGET2-Securities (T2S) for securities settlement, and the future Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS).

SWIFT customers will also have access to a wide range of products and services, including impact assessment, integration, standards translation, validation services and testing.