New launch date for the Eurosystem Collateral Management System

23 October 2020

The Governing Council of the ECB has decided to reschedule the launch of the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) from November 2022 to November 2023.

This development follows the Governing Council’s earlier decision to extend the timeline of the T2-T2S consolidation project by one year. It addresses the concerns of market participants that the current adverse environment would hamper their preparations.

The ECMS will be a unified system for managing assets used as collateral in Eurosystem credit operations. It will replace the existing 19 individual systems of the euro area national central banks. The ECMS is expected to deliver considerable benefits to the Eurosystem, its counterparties and the market more widely by harmonising collateral management practices and contributing to further EU financial integration.

In the light of the new ECMS launch date, the market participants involved in the initiative to develop a Single Collateral Management Rulebook for Europe (SCoRE) have also expressed a preference to adjust its timeline. ECMS and SCoRE are related, as SCoRE will also lay down harmonised collateral management processes that will be used by ECMS participants. In this respect, the Eurosystem has initiated a discussion in its Advisory Group on Market Infrastructures for Securities and Collateral (AMI-SeCo).