Bulgaria onboards to ECMS 05 January 2026Bulgaria Reporter: Hansa Tote
Image: Boyan Georgiev/stock.adobe.com
Bulgaria has completed its onboarding to the European Central Bank鈥檚 (ECB鈥檚) Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS), accessing the full suite of TARGET services.
The ECMS was launched in June 2025, and is a unified system for managing assets used as collateral in Eurosystem credit operations.
Bulgarian banks are now able to settle cash, securities, and collateral transactions in euros, a step that coincides with the country鈥檚 adoption of the euro as its official currency to become the 21st country to do so.
Bulgaria鈥檚 full onboarding to all TARGET services includes key developments such as: the Bulgarian National Bank becoming a euro area national central bank on T2 to settle payments, TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) to settle instant payments, and TARGET2-Securities (T2S) to settle securities.
All Bulgarian banks are now connected to T2, enabling large value payments to be settled through the system and instant retail payments to be settled via TIPS.
Bulgarian central securities depositories will now also settle all Bulgarian securities in T2S, facilitating seamless cross border securities settlement in central bank money.
Bulgaria鈥檚 participation in the ECMS also harmonises its collateral management services for assets used as collateral in Eurosystem credit operations.
While settlement in euros has been possible for the Bulgarian market through TARGET2 since 2010, T2S since 2023, and TIPS since 2024, the adoption of the euro as Bulgaria鈥檚 official currency and the country鈥檚 full integration into TARGET services represents a 鈥渉istoric step鈥�, according to the ECB.
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Image: Boyan Georgiev/stock.adobe.com 