On 21 August 2019, Euroclear Finland, ECSDA Member, received a licence to operate under the European regulation n° 909/2014 on settlement and central securities depositories (CSDR) from the Finnish Ministry of Finance.
More information can be found here.
The list of CSDs authorised under the CSDR is provided on CSD Facts page of the website.
On 9 July 2019, ECSDA responded to the ECB public consultation on EDDI (European Distribution for Debt Instruments) initiative.
ECSDA welcomes the ECB market consultation on its possible European Distribution of Debt Instruments (EDDI) initiative. ECSDA is committed to further foster the Capital Markets Union (CMU) initiatives and underlines its commitment to increased efficiency in the issuance of debt instruments. CSDs strongly support harmonisation, particularly when enabled by market-led initiatives. Although following discussions and workshops with the ECB and based on the content of the market consultation document, ECSDA believes that several concerns need to be addressed before any decision is made with regard to EDDI. In particular, ECSDA would like to highlight the following points:
Due to the above-mentioned concerns, ECSDA believes that in the shape it is currently designed, EDDI is not the appropriate solution for the problem indicated in the Eurosystem’s consultation. We recommend considering the above-mentioned concerns before any further decision on EDDI is proposed.
ECSDA believes that the path to further scalability for issuers and enhancing efficiency and depth of issuance across different EU markets is a coherent legislative and fiscal environment across EU. Efficient market practices established at national level may meet specific needs of relevant actors and support issuance of securities in the local market according to the local requirements and expectations. The tax framework applicable to debt issuance remains an element of significant divergence. Though governments use withholding tax applied to debt proceeds for their national budget, ECSDA recommends that the new European Commission identify a path in this area for further harmonisation (without imparting to this national area of responsibility, if there is no such political will). A similar reasoning is applicable to the securities law domain, where harmonisation would be a major catalyst to cross-jurisdictional issuance. Without such harmonisation, actions undertaken by commercial or public actors will not bring substantial benefits.
We are persuaded that a coherent and harmonised legislative and fiscal framework would be central to the success of the Financial Market and CMU. ECSDA will remain a proactive contributor to the dialogue with policymakers.
On 20 December, ESMA has published two Consultation Papers dedicated to CSDR (Regulation (EU) 909/2014) Settlement Discipline requirements:
The consultations are open until 20 February 2019.
You can find the consultations on the linked ESMA web pages.
European Commission has published today a communication, allowing ESMA to recognise, on the temporary and conditional basis, the UK CSD in case of Brexit no deal. ESMA expressed its support to this decision.
In more detail:
ECSDA appreciated the publication by the European Commission of the communication for Brexit no-deal contingency plan, as issued on the Commission website.
We also note that ESMA Board of Supervisors expressed support to “continued access to the UK Central Securities Depository (CSD), in order to allow the UK CSD to serve Irish securities and to avoid any negative impact on the Irish securities market.” For more please see ESMA website.
On 27 October, Danmarks Nationalbank has connected its real-time gross settlement and collateral management system to the ECB T2S platform. The same week-end, VP Securities, the Danish Central Securities Depository and ECSDA member, has facilitated the first settlement in Danish Krone. DKK is the first, other than euro, currency available for settlement on T2S.
Congratulations to our Danish colleagues for having contributed to making settlement in DKK on T2S possible!
Please read the full VP Securities press release
Updated 19 September 2018
We are truly happy to see that the list of European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) members that have been authorised under the new pan-European Union regulation is increasing. The CSDs that have received the authorisation to function under the CSD regulation are:
1. Austian CSD – OeKB CSD. Press release.
2. Danish CSD – VP Securities. Press release.
3. Latvian CSD covering Baltic states – Nasdaq CSD. Press release.
4. Portugese CSD – Interbolsa. Press release.
5. Bulgarian CSD – CDAD. Press release
On 2 May, the European Central Bank has published the Threat Intelligence-based Ethical Red Teaming (TIBER-EU) Framework. It aims at providing a view on how to ensure controlled tests against cyber-attacks for financial institutions of all sorts.
The ECB says with regard to TIBER-EU that:
You can find more information on the ECB website.