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EUReuro

EUR correspondent banking: who clears the euro

Direct TARGET2 access is widespread among EU banks, so euro chains are often short — but banks outside the euro area still need a correspondent. EUR settles through TARGET2 and EURO1.

EUR in the instruction data

Aggregate figures from the current SWIFT standing settlement instruction dataset.

7,062
banks publish a EUR instruction
1,477
correspondents serve EUR
23%
served by the top three
219
countries represented

Individual instructions, BICs and account numbers are available to subscribers.

Tracing a EUR chain

Each instruction names the institution holding that bank's EUR account. Following those links repeatedly ends at a bank that publishes no onward EUR instruction — the ultimate clearer, with direct access to TARGET2 and EURO1. That is where the money actually settles before moving inwards to the beneficiary.

Who clears EUR payments?
EUR settles through TARGET2 and EURO1. Banks without direct access hold a nostro account with a correspondent that has it, so a EUR payment reaches the beneficiary by settling at that correspondent first and moving inwards. In the current dataset 1,477 distinct institutions act as EUR correspondents.
How concentrated is EUR clearing?
The three largest EUR correspondents between them serve about 23% of the banks that publish a EUR instruction. Concentration matters because the withdrawal of one correspondent can affect a large number of respondent banks at once.
How do I find a bank's EUR correspondent?
Search the bank's BIC, select EUR, and the chain resolves hop by hop to the institution that clears the currency, including the nostro account number on each relationship.
Trace a EUR chainHow it works

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