TARGET (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System) is an interbank payment system for the real-time processing of cross-border transfers throughout the European Union. It includes 16 national real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems and the ECB payment mechanism (EPM). TARGET provides access to more than 1,000 direct participants and more than 48,000 credit institutions (including branches and subsidiaries). Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) is an online system for settling transactions of financial institutions, especially banks. ... ECB is an abbreviation for: European Central Bank, other important central banks include the FED, BOE and BOJ England and Wales Cricket Board Electronic codebook mode in data encryption using block ciphers Environment Campus Birkenfeld, a university of applied sciences in Birkenfeld, Germany. ...

Infrastructure

TARGET itself is not, strictly speaking a funds transfer system, in that transfers cannot be fed into TARGET directly; it merely links existing national systems. TARGET provides interlinking and security components via which the national systems can communicate.

TARGET is mainly used for individual payments between banks, but it is also used for urgent transfers between companies, or even individuals, at the discretion of the banks involved. Communication between the national systems mainly use the SWIFT network. Genera Many; see text. ...

Participants

As of November 2006, the participants are the EU15 countries and the ECB, plus Poland, Slovenia, and Estonia. The Polish and Estonian systems are connected indirectly via the Italian system, New BIREL. Slovenia (20 banks plus the Slovenian central bank) are connected direct to the German RTGSplus system.

Volume

In June 2006 there were over 7 million TARGET payments, with a total value of over 47,000 billion euros ^[1]

TARGET holidays

On some public holidays the TARGET system is closed in all participating countries.

TARGET holidays are: New Year (January 1), Easter Friday, Easter Monday, Labour Day (May 1), and the first and second days of Christmas (December 25 and December 26). For other uses, see New Year (disambiguation). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... Good Friday is a special day celebrated by Christians on the Friday before Easter or Pascha. ... Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is celebrated as a holiday in some largely Christian cultures. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Labor Day (United States). ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. ...

TARGET2

TARGET2 is the planned joint gross clearing system of the (ESCB) that is to unify the technical infrastructure of the 26 central (note-issuing) banks of the European Union. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is composed of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 25 EU Member States. ...

Its implementation is based on a decision of the ECB Council of Autumn 2002 and is to be done by the three central banks of France (Banque de France), Germany (Bundesbank) and Italy (Banca d'Italia). The technical platform is now (November 2006) operational but the transition is still to be implemented. One of the Banque de Frances offices in Paris. ... The Deutsche Bundesbank (German Federal Bank) is the central bank of Germany and a part of the European System of Central Banks. ... Banca dItalia is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. ...

Transition to TARGET2

The ECB is planning a transition of national systems to Target2 in four stages:

Group 1 (2007-11-19)

• Austria
• Cyprus
• Germany
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Slovenia

2007 (MMVII) is the current year from UTC-7 east to the international date line. ... November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

Group 2 (2008-02-18)

• Belgium
• Finnland
• France
• Ireland
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain

2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Map of Finland Main article: Geography of Finland Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands; 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands to be precise. ...

Group 3 (2008-05-19)

• Denmark
• Estonia
• ECB
• Greece
• Italy
• Poland

2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). ... Headquarters Frankfurt, Germany Established 1 January 1998 President Jean-Claude Trichet Central Bank of Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain Currency Euro -ISO 4217 Code EUR Reserves >€4 billion Base borrowing rate 4. ...

Group 4 (2008-09-15)

• for unforeseen circumstances

2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ...

Transaction prices for TARGET2

Transaction prices have still to be decided (as of November 2006), but the ECB has proposed two parallel schemes:

1. EUR 100 per month plus EUR 0.80 per transaction
2. EUR 1,250 per month plus EUR 0.20 to EUR 0.60 per transaction (depending on the volume of transactions)

References

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia articles on TARGET as of 2006-12-03 and TARGET2 as of 2006-12-03.

1. ^ http://www.ecb.int/stats/payments/payments/html/index.en.html

See also

SWIFT Genera Many; see text. ...

External links

ECB