European Central Bank publishes operational guide to collateral management in Eurosystem credit operations

The European Central Bank has published an information document for Eurosystem counterparties setting out the key operational processes and arrangements for mobilising, managing and releasing collateral in Eurosystem credit operations under the Collateral Management Guideline and the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS). It covers marketable and non-marketable collateral, triparty collateral management services and TARGET2-Securities (T2S) auto-collateralisation. The guide describes the pooling method used to collateralise credit and the required account setup, including internal and external asset accounts, main cash accounts in Central Liquidity Management, T2S dedicated cash accounts and contingency cash accounts in ECONS II for designated critical participants. For marketable assets it sets out domestic, links, correspondent central banking model and direct access mobilisation channels, instruction validation requirements and cut-off times, including 17:45 CET for same-day (de)mobilisation requests and cancellation of unmatched instructions at 17:30 CET. For credit claims it details registration data elements, ex ante eligibility checks and update obligations, including a EUR 500,000 minimum threshold for cross-border mobilisation via the correspondent central banking model. The document also describes margin call mechanics, including automatic mobilisation of cash collateral at 16:55 CET if a deficit remains, as well as triparty operating hours and cut-offs, the end-of-day auto-collateralisation reimbursement process that starts at 16:30 CET, fee recovery principles for CSD and triparty agent costs, and the handling of CSDR settlement discipline cash penalties.