ECSDA congratulates SIX Digital Exchange having obtained two licenses to operate a CSD as well as a stock exchange for digital assets. The authorisation was granted by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority – FINMA. These licenses will enable a fully regulated, integrated trading, settlement, and custody infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology for digital securities. SIX Digital Exchange is part of the SIX group, also including SIX SIS, an ECSDA Member.

Please see the full release.

Today, 19 May 2021, at the General Meeting of the European Association of Central Securities Depositories (ECSDA), Mathias Papenfuß stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Association’s Board. At the same meeting Brigitte Daurelle resigned from her position as Vice-Chair of ECSDA. For the remaining one-year period ahead of the re-election of the full ECSDA Board, Mark Gem and Guillaume Eliet have been elected as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board. ECSDA Members have also elected three new Executive Committee Members of the Association.

After having successfully led ECSDA Board for eight years, since 3 May 2013, Mathias Papenfuß steps down from the ECSDA Chair position. He has played an instrumental role in the foundation of the Association and pioneered the vision of ECSDA in providing a voice for CSDs across Europe. Under his Chairmanship, ECSDA has solidified its role as a major stakeholder in discussions with authorities, an essential place of dialogue for the industry and has grown its membership base.

Brigitte Daurelle, who is also departing from ECSDA today, has been integral in contributing her expertise as Vice-Chair of the Association during the previous five years.

Gathering remotely during the Annual General Meeting on 19 May 2021, ECSDA Board elected Mark Gem of Clearstream Banking AG as its Chairman, replacing Mathias Papenfuß. Furthermore, Guillaume Eliet of Euroclear has been elected to replace Brigitte Daurelle as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee. Three new Executive Committee Members have also been elected to complete the ECSDA Executive Committee: (i) Loretta Milani of MONTETITOLI, (ii) Florentin Soliva of SIX SIS and (iii) Michael Carty of Euroclear UK & Ireland.
The mandate of the newly elected ECSDA Officers and Members will last until the re-election of the full ECSDA Board in 2022.

Commenting on his experience as Chairman, Mathias Papenfuß noted:
“It has been a great privilege and honour for me to be the ECSDA Chairperson for such a long period of time. I enjoyed the leadership role of ECSDA and the strong collaboration, trust, and personal relationships with its members very much. Although I am saddened to step down as Chairman, I am reassured of the professional and mature association that ECSDA has become over the last 10 years considering its strong recognition within Europe and also globally.”

Commenting on his election, Mark Gem noted:
“Europe’s post-trade financial market infrastructure has always been globally competitive and its CSDs are a core part of that. ECSDA has played a leading role in preparing the CSDs for T2S and CSDR and in making the industry safe and efficient and we now look forward to playing a key role in Capital Markets Union. It is a very great honour to take on the leadership of the at such an exciting time.”

Please see the full list of Executive Committee member here

A complete list of ECSDA Board Directors can be found here.

Press release

Today, 29 April 2021, Euronext announces that it completed the acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group.

This acquisition is transformational for Euronext and Borsa Italiana, making the combined group the leading pan-European market infrastructure.

Euronext is becoming a leader in post-trade activities, with a large clearing house, CC&G, and one of the largest CSD networks in Europe.

The Euronext CSDs – Euronext VPS, Interbolsa, Monte Titoli, and VP Securities – jointly reach close to €6 trillion of assets under custody.

This reflects Euronext’s long-term commitment to serving clients in the post-trade area.
Our priorities are clear:
– deliver stable and efficient core infrastructure services (issuance custody, settlement) to European economy;
– leverage our scale and experience in multiple markets to better support the funding of issuers in Europe, across all asset classes;
– promote standardisation and convergence of market practices;
– scale added-value services to help our customers tackle key pain points.

For Monte Titoli, becoming part of Euronext means concretely that we will be able to intensify our customer-centric approach – by strengthening our services, products and technology through sharing of expertise, know-how and capabilities with other Euronext CSDs.

From 30 April, CC&G and Monte Titoli online information is moving to the euronext.com website.

Please see the full release