##ise practices that do not constitute pure settlement activities, especially in relation to corporate activities, taxes, laws and regulations. t2s will harmonise the real - time life cycle management functionality for settlement instructions. t2s will also harmonise the settlement model and will offer daily real - time and night - time cycle modules. market participants will therefore follow one common set of harmonised settlement procedures irrespective of whether they are settling securities domestically or cross - border. t2s will provide a neutral, borderless, core infrastructure crystallising the gains from harmonisation and providing support for competition between service - providers in the posttrade industry for securities. this will foster the changes required in intermediation between issuers and investors by providing impetus for financial market participants ’ development of a competitive, efficient and secure european financial market. furthermore, t2s will also create a single pool of assets within europe, essentially all of the securities held by participating csds, exchangeable for each other via central bank money at low cost, in real time and in an extremely reliable settlement system. market participants across europe will therefore be able to pool all of their securities in one system, just as cash is now pooled in target2, without the need to distribute and allocate securities and central bank money within several independent national platforms. this will increase the efficiency of collateral management and reduce market participants ’ collateral and / or liquidity needs. t2s will therefore have the effect of reducing market participants ’ costs and contributing to the optimal allocation of investment opportunities. this will also allow for the faster re - use of securities, as well as central bank money – again, for the benefit of market participants. the use of target2 and t2s will eliminate the risk currently associated with cross border settlement, thereby providing for efficient and stable intermediation between buyers and sellers within the capital market segments. these new features will therefore create valuable new options for commercial and investment banks as regards the management of their collateral and the optimisation of their funding costs. the indications given by market participants suggest that this is likely to lead to very significant reductions in costs. this will feed through to increased trading activity, reduced trading spreads and lower service prices, thus improving welfare. europe will benefit from t2s. commercial service - providers will benefit from the level playing - field that a common platform, harmonised rules and practices and reduced complexity will bring. issuers will benefit from lower capital costs. investors will

“ right ” to earn positive interest on savings. but one often forgets two things. first, negative rates barely apply to firms, and even less so to households. they are, by and large, levied on banks. and, second, charging banks to leave their funds overnight at the ecb has created a “ hot potato ” effect : it discourages banks from hoarding cash and gives them an incentive to extend credit to firms and households instead. you can see the success of our measures on the right - hand side. today, credit is no longer an impediment to growth. virtually all euro area regions now report improvements in the availability of bank loans, also here in paris basin. in other words, our measures have visibly reduced fragmentation in the euro area. you can see this also on my next slide. while in 2014 firms in italy and spain faced much higher borrowing rates than in germany or france, today this gap has vanished, by and large. firms are no longer penalised by their location within our currency union. and those that already benefited from low interest rates a few years ago today enjoy the lowest borrowing conditions on record. never has it been cheaper for you – for firms – to borrow from banks than it is today. in france, for example, the composite cost of borrowing for firms during the first half of this year was just 1. 5 %. of course, that is not to say that all of you will always obtain credit from your bank. assessing credit risk remains a key function of banks, and the relationship is a commercial one. but all other things being equal, credit has become easier and cheaper. and firms have responded to the marked easing in borrowing conditions. you can see this on the right - hand side. thanks to the impact of our policy measures on borrowing rates, annual loan growth to firms has accelerated measurably in recent years. as a result, corporate investment is currently growing at an annual rate of well above 3 % in the euro area. in france, loans have increased to such an extent that the haut conseil de stabilite financiere decided that, from 1 july 2019, banks will have to put aside more capital against possible future risks. making our economies work better so, the ecb ’ s monetary policy has played a crucial role in promoting investment, consumption and, ultimately, price stability by reducing the borrowing rates faced by the real economy. it is therefore fair to say that many of