ECMS Goes Live—Central Banks Finally Enter the 21st Century (With Paperwork)

The Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) is now operational—because nothing says ’financial innovation’ like digitizing paperwork that should’ve died with fax machines.

Streamlined—or just less analog?

ECMS replaces 19 legacy systems across the Eurozone, promising ’efficiency gains’ for collateral swaps. Translation: fewer manual errors, faster settlements, and one less excuse for traders to miss deadlines.

The catch?

It’s still a centralized ledger—just shinier. No blockchain, no decentralization, just banks doing what banks do best: automating bureaucracy while calling it progress.

Bottom line:
A small step for collateral management, a giant leap for… well, basically just the Eurosystem.

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has confirmed that the new Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS) will go live on 16 June 2025. This follows a positive assessment conducted by the Market Infrastructure Board of the ECB.

The national central banks of the euro area and their counterparties stand ready for the launch of the ECMS following extensive testing of the system in a stable environment. After migration is completed over the weekend, ECMS operations are expected to start on Monday, 16 June at 07:00 CET.

The ECMS is a unified system that will harmonise collateral management for Eurosystem credit operations, replacing the systems currently used by the 20 euro area national central banks. The ECMS will facilitate the smooth FLOW of cash, securities and collateral across Europe, enhancing the liquidity management features of TARGET Services.

Source: European Central Bank