Central bank operations push up Target2 turnover

The European Central Bank (ECB) today revealed that Target2, the Eurosystem's real-time gross settlement system, was used to settle €634 trillion worth of transactions in 2012, with "operations involving central banks" playing their part in this increase.

The 2012 result represents the third year in a row turnover has increased, growing 3.5%, but it remains below the all-time high of €683 trillion reached in 2008. The number of transactions also increased, to 90.6 million, up 1.2% from 89.6 mill