site.btaBulgarian National Bank's Central Securities Depository Joins T2S Settlement Platform

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), as owner and operator of the BNB Government Securities Settlement System (BNBGSSS), and the European Central Bank have signed the TARGET 2 Securities (T2S) Framework Agreement by which the BNBGSSS joins the Eurosystem’s T2S securities settlement platform, the central bank said in a press release on Thursday.

The BNBGSSS is a central securities depository (CSD) for government bonds based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is one of two CSDs operating in the Bulgarian market. The depository provides settlement in euro terms of BGN- and EUR-denominated dematerialized government securities issued by the Finance Ministry for the domestic market. By joining T2S, the BNBGSSS will be able to offer its users delivery-versus-payment settlement of securities and cash in central bank money. A suitable migration date for the BNBGSSS will be assessed in accordance with the T2S governance procedures.

T2S is one of the TARGET Services provided by the Eurosystem to help improve the integration of financial markets in Europe by harmonizing securities settlement in central bank money at the pan-European level. In 2021 the platform processed an average of 700,000 securities transactions each day, primarily in euro but also in Danish krone, the BNB press release says.