It took more than a decade and cost €1 billion to build, but the launch of the European Central Bank’s Target2-Securities pan-European settlement system last month came with little fanfare.

More usually known as T2S, it is one of the biggest projects yet attempted to bring Europe's capital markets together. T2S means that securities and associated payment change hands in real time after a deal in a single continent-wide system rather than the hotchpotch of national systems previously in use.