SIA and Colt chosen to deliver 4CBNet, the European high-speed core network for TARGET2 and TARGET2-Securities (T2S)

Published by Make Do on July 8, 2013

London, 4 July 2013

Colt, in partnership with SIA, has won the tender issued by Deutsche Bundesbank, on behalf of Banca d’Italia, Banque de France and Banco de España (the 4CB), to create and deliver the network infrastructure connecting the four central banks that manage the single Eurosystem platform for the settlement of large-value payments and securities transactions.

The 4-CentralBank-Network (4CBNet) will provide a high-speed backbone (10 Gigabits) ensuring continuity of information flows for the four central banks, preserving integrity and confidentiality. Colt and SIA 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.

These capabilities enable the synchronisation of the four central banks’ data centres, providing a single virtual infrastructure to support the geographical distribution of vital applications for the European financial system. TARGET2, the platform of payments in Euro for the real-time settlement of high-value transactions in central bank money, is already in live use. TARGET2-Securities, the single European platform for the settlement of domestic and cross-border securities transactions, will go-live in 2015.

TARGET2 and TARGET2-Securities (T2S) are part of the initiatives for the creation of the single European market after the Euro, SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) and PSD (Payment Services Directive). According to estimates by the European Central Bank, TARGET2-Securities will process a daily average of over 1 million securities transactions, as well as contributing to significant cost reduction of cross-border settlements.

The new network infrastructure 4CBNet will be ready by September 2013.

The partnership between SIA and Colt, which was awarded a Network Service Provider license for T2S last year, is further strengthened with the implementation of the 4CBNet project. This confirms the technological leadership in the financial sector and the strong European presence of the two companies.

“We are pleased to add another piece to the pan-European-wide project that we are building together with SIA. For 20 years, Colt has been serving the European financial community and has developed strong expertise in communication services and infrastructure. The T2S project, of which the network 4CBNet is part, requires specific skills in terms of technology, integration and support services that Colt, as the information delivery platform, guarantees,” said Hugh Cumberland, Solution Manager, Financial Services Sector, Colt.

“The long-established SIA excellence in network services solutions for the financial sector is leading us to a steady growth path with Colt at a European level. 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,” said Andrea Galeazzi, Director of Network Services Division SIA.

About Colt

Colt is the information delivery platform, enabling its customers to deliver, share, process and store their vital business information. An established leader in delivering integrated computing and network services to major organisations, midsized businesses and wholesale customers, Colt operates a 22-country, 43,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 39 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 19,000 buildings and 20 carrier neutral Colt data centres.

In 2010, the Colt Data Centre Services business was launched to deliver innovative high quality data centre solutions at a Colt or customer site. Our Innovative data centres are rapid to deploy, flexible and highly efficient.
In addition to its direct sales capability, Colt has four indirect channels to market; Agent, Franchise, Distributor and Wholesale which includes Carriers, Service Providers, VARs and Voice Resellers.

Colt is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT).

About SIA

SIA is European leader in the design, creation and management of technology infrastructures and services for Financial and Central Institutions, Corporates and Public Administration bodies, in the areas of payments, e-money, network services and capital markets.

SIA Group is currently present in around 40 countries, and also operates through its subsidiaries in Hungary and South Africa. The company has offices in Milan and Brussels.

With 9.2 billion transactions annually relating to cards, collections and payments and corresponding to over 4 billion operations performed, SIA manages 63 million cards and carries 11.9 thousand billion bytes of data on the network.

The Group is made up of six companies: the parent SIA, the Italian companies Pi4Pay (services for Payment Institutions), RA Computer (treasury solutions for banks, businesses and P.A.), and TSP (payment collection services for companies and P.A.), Perago (infrastructures for central banks) in South Africa and SIA Central Europe in Hungary.

For more information, go to: www.sia.eu

Contacts:

Colt Technology Services
Helen Toft
Tel: +44(0)20 863 5015
Mobile: +44 (0)7855 301078
[email protected]

SIA
Filippo Fantasia
Head of Media Coordination
Tel. +39 02.6084.2833
Mob. +39 335.1202713
[email protected]

Valentina Piana
Media Coordination
Tel. +39 02.6084.2334
[email protected]

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