The European Central Bank selects SIA and Colt to provide connectivity services

By Megha Bhattacharya

The European Central Bank has selected SIA along with Colt Technology Services in a bid to provide the ECB with connectivity services to the payments (TARGET2 and TIPS) and securities (TARGET2-Securities) settlement platforms and the ECMS via a single access interface –the Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway (ESMIG). SIA provides a specific solution for the processing of all messages in order to facilitate the integration of the ECB’s application software with the single ESMIG access interface.

“We feel very honoured that the European Central Bank has selected SIA and our partner Colt for access to financial market infrastructures of strategic importance for the entire Eurozone. This remarkable new international success represents further acknowledgement of the absolute reliability, solidity and security of our infrastructure and technology services, currently supporting the modernization initiatives of about 20 central banks all around the world,” stated Nicola Cordone, CEO of SIA.

The ESMIG project is expected to enable participants in the European financial system access the
platforms provided by the Eurosystem including TARGET2, TIPS, the securities settlement platform TARGET2-Securities (T2S), ECMS and other new services and applications.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to collaborate on this project for the European Central Bank, one of the largest banks in the world. We are proud to have been chosen, together with our partner SIA, to provide connectivity services to the ESMIG platform and thus allow the ECB to focus on its institutional objectives rather than infrastructure. This is further confirmation of the positive reputation that Colt has built up over the years, thanks to numerous investments in both technology and human resources, in Italy and around the world,” commented Paula Cogan, Executive Vice President Sales, Marketing & Customer Relationship Management of Colt Technology Services.