‘central securities depository’ (CSD) means an entity that: (a) enables securities to be established and settled in book entry form, and/or maintains and administers securities on behalf of others through the provision or maintenance of securities accounts; (b) operates or provides for a securities settlement system in accordance with Article 2(a) of Directive 98/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 1998 on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems ( 1 ) or for entities not located in the European Economic Area (EEA) in accordance with the relevant national legislation equivalent to Directive 98/26/EC and/or is regulated by a central bank; and (c) is recognised as a CSD by national regulations and/or legislation and/or is authorised or regulated as such by a competent authority;

‘delivery-versus-payment’ means a securities settlement mechanism, which links a securities transfer and a funds transfer in such a way as to ensure that delivery occurs only if the corresponding payment occurs;

‘euro area NCB’ means the NCB of a Member State whose currency is the euro;

‘Eurosystem central bank’ means either a euro area NCB or the ECB, as the case may be;

‘Framework Agreement’ means the contractual framework entered into by a CSD and the Eurosystem for the development and operational phase;

‘general functional specifications’ (GFS) means a general functional description of the T2S business application to be developed to comply with the T2S user requirements. It will include elements such as the functional architecture (domains, modules and interactions), the conceptual models, the data model or the data flow process;

‘Level 2-Level 3 agreement’ means the supply and operation agreement that is negotiated between the ►M2  MIB ◄ and the 4CB, endorsed by the Governing Council and subsequently signed by the Eurosystem central banks and the 4CB, as amended when necessary. It contains the additional details of the tasks and responsibilities of the 4CB, the ►M2  MIB ◄ and the Eurosystem central banks;

‘non-euro area NCB’ means the NCB of a Member State whose currency is not the euro;

‘operational phase’ means the time period starting once the first CSD has migrated to T2S;

‘other central bank’ means the central bank of a country that is outside the Union;

‘payment schedule’ means a schedule indicating the payment sequence for instalments of reimbursement to the 4CB;

‘service level agreement’ means both the agreement defining the level of services to be provided by the 4CB to the Eurosystem, and the agreement defining the level of services to be provided by the Eurosystem to the CSDs, in relation to T2S;

‘specification and development phase’ means the time period beginning with the approval of the URD by the Governing Council and ending with the start of the operational phase;

‘T2S business application’ means the software developed and operated by the 4CB on behalf of the Eurosystem with a view to enabling the Eurosystem to provide the T2S services on the T2S platform;

‘T2S Change and Release Management Procedure’ means a set of rules and procedures that is applied whenever a change to T2S services is initiated;

‘T2S platform’ means the hardware and all software components, i.e. all software used excluding the T2S business application, required to run and operate the T2S business application;

‘T2S Programme’ means the set of related activities and deliverables needed to develop T2S until the full migration of all CSDs, which have signed the Framework Agreement and all Eurosystem central banks, non-euro area NCBs and other central banks;

‘T2S project account’ means the T2S account used to collect and distribute instalments, reimbursement and fees. The project account can have sub-accounts to separate different kinds of cash flows. It does not have a budgetary character;

‘T2S services’ means the services to be provided by the Eurosystem to CSDs and central banks on the basis of the contractual arrangements entered into between the Eurosystem and CSDs, non-euro area NCBs or other central banks;

‘T2S users’ means CSD participants, legal entities or individuals having a contractual relationship with the CSD for the processing of their securities settlement-related activities in T2S, or members of a central bank, whose currency is available for settlement-related processing in T2S, having a contractual relationship with the central bank for the processing of their securities-related cash-processing activities in T2S;

‘User detailed functional specifications (UDFS)’ means a detailed description of the functions managing the T2S external data flows, from application to application. It will include the necessary information for the users to adjust or to develop their internal information system in view of connecting it to T2S;

‘User Handbook’ means the document describing the way in which T2S users can make use of a number of T2S software functions that are available in a user to application (screen-based) mode;

‘User requirements document’ (URD) means the document setting out the user requirements for T2S as published by the ECB on 3 July 2008 and as subsequently amended through the T2S Change and Release Management Procedure;

‘Advisory Group on Market Infrastructures for Securities and Collateral’ or ‘AMI SeCo’ means the advisory body whose mission is to advise the Eurosystem on matters related to securities clearing and settlement, collateral management and T2S, and whose mandate is published on the ECB's website;

‘Market Infrastructure Board’ or ‘MIB’ means the Eurosystem governance body established pursuant to Decision (EU) 2019/166 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2019/3) ( 2 );

‘Market Infrastructure and Payments Committee’ or ‘MIPC’ means the Eurosystem Committee charged with assisting the decision-making bodies of the Eurosystem in fulfilling the ESCB's statutory duty to promote the smooth operation of payment systems, including business continuity aspects, or its successor.

preparing, on the basis of the URD and the guidance of the ►M2  MIB ◄ , the GFS, the UDFS and the User Handbooks in accordance with the T2S Executive Summary Plan;

developing and building T2S on behalf of the Eurosystem, and providing the technical components of T2S in accordance with the T2S Executive Summary Plan and with the URD, the GFS and the UDFS and other specifications and service levels;

making T2S available to the ►M2  MIB ◄ in conformity with the approved timing, specifications and service levels;

submitting the following to the ►M2  MIB ◄ for the purposes of the T2S financial arrangements pursuant to Article 12:

obtaining all licences necessary to build and operate T2S and to enable the Eurosystem to be in a position to provide T2S services to the CSDs;

implementing changes to T2S in accordance with the T2S Change and Release Management Procedure;

providing answers in their field of competence to requests formulated by the Governing Council or the ►M2  MIB ◄ ;

providing training, technical and operational support for tests and for migration, under the coordination of the ►M2  MIB ◄ ;

negotiating any amendments to the Level 2-Level 3 agreement with the ►M2  MIB ◄ .