Central securities depository of Bulgarian National Bank joins T2S

22 December 2022

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), as owner and operator of the BNB Government Securities Settlement System (BNBGSSS), have signed the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) Framework Agreement, which sees BNBGSSS join the Eurosystem’s T2S securities settlement platform.

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. Owned by Българска народна банка (Bulgarian National Bank), the depository provides settlement, in Bulgarian levs and euro, of dematerialised government securities issued by the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance for the domestic market. By joining T2S, 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 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 harmonising 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.