CMU HLF published its final report

On 10 June, the High-Level Forum on the Capital Markets Union organised under the hospices of the European Commission published its final report.

The report consists in 17 recommendations put forward with the intent of addressing relevant issues related to corporate access to finance, pan-European market architecture, retail investment and cross-border investment.

Recommendation on CSDR
The European Commission is invited to conduct a targeted review of Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) to strengthen the CSD passport and facilitate the servicing of domestic issuance in non-national currencies. This should be accompanied by measures to strengthen the supervisory convergence among National Competent Authorities (NCAs). These measures, taken jointly, should enhance the cross-border provision of settlement services in the EU.

Justification
A targeted review could usefully tackle the following issues:

1. CSD passporting and links
   While the objective of CSDR is to create a “common CSD market” free of regulatory barriers and to offer CSDs a European passport, divergent application by NCAs of the rules according to which (I)CSDs should meet CSD links framework requirements and provide services in another Member State creates procedural and regulatory hurdles, fragmenting the post-trade landscape along national lines.
2. Cross-border payments and access to Central Bank and commercial liquidity
   The CSDR has unintendedly limited access to global liquidity pools for CSDs without a “limited purpose banking license”. Consequently, these CSDs cannot service domestic issuance in other currencies, including sovereign debt. The CSDR foresees the possibility for CSDs without a banking licence to appoint a “designated credit institution”. However, such liquidity providers have not emerged yet. National Central Banks (NCBs) should facilitate non-domestic (I)CSDs to process settlement in Central Bank Money in other currencies (including those frequently used for issuance and settlement: GBP, CHF, USD), after taking due account of the implications of such access. Alternatively, the CSDR restrictions that prohibit CSDs holding a banking license to provide such services to other CSDs could be amended.
3. Supervision of CSDs
   Divergence in national supervisory approaches is still an important fragmentation factor in the provision of settlement services that generates costs and limits the cross-border offer. Given that securities laws are not harmonised across EU 27, NCAs still have a role to play. Therefore, ESMA’s work within the current scope of its mandate in terms of convergence should be continued and strengthened. The aim should be to ensure convergence in supervisory approaches across the Member States to reduce administrative burdens on CSDs and to generate the value added for the EU financial markets in terms of the CSDR objectives.

Please read the full report