Payment Infrastructure

TARGET services

TARGET services are designed for the settlement of (mostly) large-value payments, securities transactions and instant payments. Separate services have been established within the TARGET for different types of payments, namely T2 for payments, T2S for securities settlements, and TIPS for instant payments settlement. Settlement takes place in central bank money, through the accounts held by participants for each of the aforementioned payment types with individual services. Participants manage liquidity across individual services through their main cash account, which they also use to settle payments in connection with monetary policy operations and other operations with the central bank.

The functioning of the TARGET-Slovenija system and the conditions for participation are defined in the General terms and conditions for participation in the TARGET-Slovenija system (content is available in Slovene only).

T2 is the real-time gross settlement system designed primarily for the execution of urgent payments and large-value payments. It is used by central banks and commercial banks to execute monetary payments, interbank payments, and customer payments.

Payments are executed on an individual basis, in real time and settled in central bank money, i.e. money held in an account with a central bank. More than 43,000 banks worldwide are reachable in T2, and is one of the largest payment systems in the world in terms of settlement value.

Institutions that meet the conditions for participation in TARGET can participate in T2 directly, or indirectly via a selected direct participant. All Slovenian banks and savings banks participate directly in T2.

The TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) is a pan-European infrastructure for the execution of (domestic and cross-border) instant payments. It operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In order to facilitate instant payments, the Eurosystem required all TARGET participants that also joined the pan-European instant payments scheme (SCTInst) to ensure their inclusion in TIPS. The processing of payments in TIPS is compliant with SCTInst scheme. When a payment is settled in TIPS, the funds are available to the payee (an individual or a legal entity) immediately. Settlement is made in central bank money via direct participants’ special accounts (dedicated cash accounts for TIPS) held at the central bank exclusively for the purpose of settling instant payments. All payments in TIPS are generally processed in less than ten seconds.

All Slovenian banks and savings banks that are payment service providers are direct participants in TIPS.

TARGET2-Securities (T2S) is a common technical platform owned by the Eurosystem central banks and dedicated to the settlement of securities transactions.

When investors buy and sell securities, the security and payment need to change hands. This process is called securities settlement, and is undertaken in T2S, where both legs of settlement – delivery of securities, and payment for them – happen simultaneously. The transfer of ownership of the securities is made in securities accounts held for this purpose by T2S participants at central securities depositories (including KDD d. d. in Slovenia), while the cash leg of settlement is made in dedicated cash accounts provided by central banks (including Banka Slovenije) in T2S.  

All entities that meet the conditions for participating in TARGET can join T2S. Individual entities can connect to T2S as a direct participant, i.e. by opening the aforementioned dedicated cash account for T2S on the T2S technical platform. They can also connect to T2S as an indirect participant, i.e. via another participant who holds a dedicated cash account for T2S.

Slovenian banks are connected to T2S as direct participants. Slovenian brokerage houses connect indirectly via Slovenian banks.

Ensuring pan-European reachability

Banka Slovenije allows Slovenian banks and savings banks to meet the requirements for pan-European reachability for SEPA credit transfers and SEPA direct debits under the Reguilation on establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct debits in euro.

This entails ensuring that Slovenian banks and savings banks are able to connect via Banka Slovenije to STEP2-T, the pan-European payment system for executing SEPA credit transfers and direct debits. It is operated by EBA Clearing. Banka Slovenije thus enables Slovenian banks and savings banks to exchange credit transfers and direct debits with several thousand payment service providers across Europe.

Eurosystem DLT infrastructure for wholesale central bank money settlement

The Eurosystem is working to enable the use of tokenised central bank money in order to support an integrated European market for digital assets. To this end, two closely related projects are underway: Pontes and Appia.

Pontes

Pontes will be a short-term solution, with the infrastructure expected to be established in September 2026. It will act as a bridge between market DLT platforms, where the settlement of the securities leg of financial instrument transactions takes place, and the T2 system, where the cash leg of these transactions is settled in central bank money.

Institutions eligible to participate in TARGET and market DLT operators appropriately licensed under the Pontes legal framework will be able to join Pontes.

More information about Pontes project can be found at ECB website.

Appia

With the Appia project, the Eurosystem aims to develop, by 2028 and in cooperation with market participants and the public sector, a plan for a future long-term solution that will enable the use of central bank money for the settlement of tokenised assets in financial markets. In March 2026, the Appia roadmap was published, outlining the Eurosystem’s initial approach to developing the new infrastructure. The objectives of the project are to preserve the role of central bank money as the anchor of the two-tier monetary system, foster innovative solutions for the settlement of financial transactions, support strategic autonomy, and ensure the international role of the euro.

More information about Appia project can be found at ECB website.