The firm’s Clearstream Banking AG unit and the European Central Bank, both based in Frankfurt, inked the accord on Monday, the company said.

The ECB introduced T2S--an IT platform that will eventually allow all European bonds and equities to be traded across borders--six years ago.

T2S will make settlement systems inter-operable between all euro zone countries, as well as with some outside the common currency area. When the often-delayed programme becomes functional--which the ECB now hopes will happen in 2015--T2S is expected to increase competition between post-trading services providers, ultimately leading to reduced costs for both institutional and individual investors.

“TARGET2-Securities will drive the harmonisation of post-trade processes across Europe,” Jeffrey Tessler, CEO of Clearstream (photo), said in a press statement. “It can bring huge benefits to the market and we have therefore been supporting T2S since the beginning of the project in 2006. T2S will result in of the commoditisation of European settlements and is a significant investment for our industry.”

In March, the European Commission proposed a brand new pan-EU regulatory regime for the institutions that manage securities settlement, such as Clearstream Banking AG, that similarly intends to open-up the cross-border settlement market.

At the time of that announcement, a spokesman for Clearstream in Luxembourg told Delano that the commission’s proposal “could run counter to the spirit” of T2S.