The Bank of Finland Payment and Settlement Simulator BoF-PSS

The Bank of Finland has developed a versatile Payment and Settlement System Simulator (BoF-PSS2) for making payments and settlement system simulations. The simulator can be used for analyzing liquidity needs, risk issues, settlement algorithms and changes in behavioral patterns, authority policies/regulations, settlement conventions and pricing/costs issues. The simulator is freely available for research purposes.

Version 3.2.1h has been released (31.1.2013).

The version 3.2.1 has new network analysis functionalities which are based on the latest Jung package including a network drawing tool. The network analysis module allows drawing networks and compute network indicators directly from the database of the simulator with the possibility to apply additional filters on the data. The GUI has been streamlined and Sandias' component removed so the user is now required to perform less manual operations in order to achieve results.

In addition to MySQL and MariaDB it is now possible to use the simulator with MS SQL SERVER.

Since the version 3.2.0 BoF-PSS2 is no longer distributed with an integrated MySQL connector and MySQL database. BoF-PSS2 also supports MariaDB. Database connections are handled via the JDBC interface. A BSD licensed Drizzle connector that can be used to connect to MySQL or MariaDB is provided. Users have to acquire a database software by themselves and they are allowed to change the connector to a more appropriate one if needed. For more information visit the ordering instructions and the updated User Manual 3.2.1.

TARGET2 Simulator

A separate TARGET2 simulator version of BoF-PSS2 has been developed and delivered for the European System of Central Banks. This tool allows replication of settlement processess of actual TARGET2 system. It is used by Eurosystem for quantitative analyses and numerical simulations of TARGET2.

TARGET2 simulator has been jointly delivered by Suomen Pankki (Bank of Finland) and the 3CB (Banca d'Italia, Deutsche Bundesbank, Banque de France) based on a desicion of ECB Governing Council.

Seminars and workshops around the BoF-PSS simulator

The eleventh Bank of Finland Payment and Settlement Simulator Seminar will be organised on 29- 30 August 2013 in Helsinki. Call for papers and other information of the seminar are available on the events pages.

Coming Events

11th simulator seminar 29 - 30 August 2013 in Helsinki

More information is available on the seminar's page.

Training course for simulator users (next course 27-28 August 2013 in Helsinki)

Bank of Finland organises introductory training courses for simulator users. The course aims at providing necessary skills for efficient use of BoF-PSS2 with hands on computer class exercises. It also presents numerous examples from real studies where the tool has been used. For more details see the training course outline. Minimum attendance to the session is four participants. Next course is scheduled for 27-28 August and is held back to back with the 11th simulator seminar in August 2013. The enrolement form is at the end of the seminar enrolement form.

Basically Trainings are organized upon demand and it is also possible to order a Training to be held onsite outside the proposed dates.