Telecoms firm Colt and payment processor SIA have won a deal to build the network infrastructure connecting the German, Italian, French and Spanish central banks for Target2 and Target2-Securities (T2S).
Set to go live by September, the 4-CentralBank-Network (4CBNet) will provide a 10 Gigabits high-speed backbone, ensuring continuity of information flows for the four central banks.
The providers say that they will deliver an "intelligent network infrastructure" able to constantly monitor and manage the data traffic in a fully automated way, avoiding any single point of failure and ensuring synchronisation of the four central banks' data centres.
Target2, the platform of payments in euro for the real-time settlement of high-value transactions in central bank money, is already in use, while T2S, for the settlement of domestic and cross-border securities transactions, is slated to finally go live in 2015.
Last year, Colt and SIA won one of two seven year T2S connectivity licenses to design and build the network, linking central securities depositories with the European Central Bank. The other license was awarded to Swift.
Andrea Galeazzi, director, network services division, SIA, says: "Our previous work with Target2-Securities and now 4CBNet today, represent a major step forward for the creation of a new trusted financial network for the entire European financial community."