ECMS

The Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) is a single technical platform for the national central banks of the Eurosystem that allows the harmonized management of eligible assets used as collateral in Eurosystem credit operations.

Alongside TIPS and T2-T2S Consolidation, the ECMS is an additional project launched by the Eurosystem to enhance the market infrastructure and deepen the integration of the European financial market. The realisation phase of the ECMS began with the decision taken by the ECB’s Governing Council on 6 December 2017.

The ECMS, as well as other TARGET services (T2, T2S, TIPS), will be accessible through a common Eurosystem gateway – ESMIG (Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway). Communication with the ECMS can take place either in U2A mode (user – to – application, via an advanced graphical user interface), or in A2A mode (application – to – application, by exchanging of ISO 20022 messages between the systems).

The migration to ECMS will take a “big-bang” approach and is scheduled for november 2024. This means that all interaction related to collateral management between national central banks and their communities (counterparties, central securities depositories and triparty agents) will be carried out using the ECMS from the migration date onwards.

The ECMS will replace the existing systems of the 20 national central banks that are currently used to manage assets used as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations. Although all existing systems follow the same set of rules for the use of collateral, each one is maintained separately. This means that each Eurosystem national central bank implements changes to the legal framework individually, leading to a duplication of effort while increasing the likelihood that the rules will be applied differently in different countries.
The creation of a single ECMS system will increase efficiency in the mobilization and management of collateral, while supporting further harmonization of processes between the various Eurosystem national central banks.

The replacement of the current fragmented and decentralized structure of individual national collateral management systems is in line with other Eurosystem initiatives aimed at developing common platforms and systems operating within the Eurozone with a view to further consolidate and simplify the provision of market infrastructure services.

Useful links:

More detailed and regularly updated information as well as technical documentation can be found on the ECB’s website: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/ecms/profuse/html/index.en.html