“As euro payments are now part of the Romanian economy, the central bank decided to meet the needs of the banking and business environment by implementing the Target2-Romania system,” said Sabin Carantina, head of the central bank’s payments division.
Target2-Romania will provide various services to participating banks, including low payment fees, rapid interbank discounts and flexible hours, Carantina told MEDIAFAX.
Target2 (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System) was introduced in 2007 and succeeded Target, EU’s decentralized system of national gross settlement systems, which had been in use since 1999.
Participating credit institutions may transfer euro-denominated payments in real time from their accounts with the central bank (in central bank money). The system is available between 8 and 19 from Monday to Friday, with the exception of some official holidays.
Nearly 60,000 monetary financial institutions can be accessed via Target2. The Eurosystem, which includes the European Central Bank and the national banks of eurozone members, executes its monetary policy operations in the Target2 system, while many other major payment systems use the system for settlement purposes.