In most cases, there were one or two dominant players at each stage of the value chain: typically one stock exchange for trading, one central counterparty (CCP) for clearing and at least one CSD for settlement.
Despite the introduction of the euro in 1999, the provision of post-trading services (i.e., clearing and settlement) remained heavily fragmented along national lines.
T2S as a pan-European platform was intended to complement these existing initiatives by boosting competition, increasing price transparency, and harmonising practices across Europe.
After market consultations and a decision by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), the project was launched in 2008 and the platform started operations on 22 June 2015.
[1] The development and operation of T2S was assigned to four central banks of the Eurosystem—those of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, with the ECB providing project coordination.
[6] These were, in alphabetical order of countries: OeKB CSD (Austria), Euroclear Belgium (ex-CIK) and NBB-SSS (Belgium), VP Securities (later Euronext Securities Copenhagen, Denmark), Nasdaq CSD (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Euroclear France, Clearstream Banking AG (Germany), BOGS (Greece), KELER CSD (Hungary), Monte Titoli (later Euronext Securities Milan, Italy), LuxCSD (Luxembourg), Malta Stock Exchange (Malta), Euroclear Nederland, Interbolsa (later Euronext Securities Porto, Portugal), Depozitarul Central (Romania), CDCP (Slovakia), KDD (Slovenia), Iberclear (Spain) as well as SIX SIS (Switzerland).