On 25 May 2020, Nasdaq announced the merger of Nasdaq CSD Iceland with Nasdaq CSD SE (Nasdaq CSD). The combined company, Nasdaq CSD SE, will operate in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Iceland, supervised by Baltic and Icelandic regulatory institutions cooperating in accordance with the CSDR. Nasdaq CSD operates four securities settlement systems (the Estonian SSS, the Icelandic SSS, the Latvian SSS and the Lithuanian SSS), with national jurisdiction in each country. The legal name of the company remains Nasdaq CSD SE.

Please see the full release.

ECSDA (European Central Securities Depositories Association) is pleased to welcome KACD (Central Securities Depository Joint-stock Company) based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, as its new associate member.

On that occasion, Anna Kulik, Secretary-General of ECSDA stated: “ECSDA is a major harmonisation force of post-trade practices in Europe and globally. While doing so, we stand for high level of investor protection, regional and global financial stability and innovation. We are pleased to see KACD joining us and being able to share our and consider their best practices.”

About KACD

KACD is a non-profit organization established in 1997 carrying the following types of the activities for the securities market:

1. depository activity;
2. activity on maintenance of the System of Securities Holders Registers;
3. activity on organization of securities and other financial instruments trading;
4.  clearing activity on the financial instruments transactions.
5.  opening and maintaining bank accounts of legal entities;
6. opening and maintaining bank accounts of the individuals;
7. opening and maintaining correspondent accounts of banks and organizations implementing certain types of banking operations;
8. transfer operations: execution of payment and transfer orders of legal entities

KACD has links with the following foreign depositories:

• Clearstream Banking, Frankfurt
• Euroclear Bank
• Central Securities Depository of Kyrgyz Republic
• Central Securities Depository of Belarus
• National Settlement Depository, Russia

KACD website

Thursday 14 April 2020 – The European Banking Federation (EBF), the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA), the Association of Global Custodians (AGC), the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), the Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG), the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG), the Associazione Intermediari Mercati Finanziari (ASSOSIM), the Association française des Professionnels des Titres (AFTI), the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) and EuropeanIssuers (EI) (together, the “Associations”) appreciate the efforts of regulators to ensure deeper shareholder engagement in corporate governance, however we would like to highlight our deep considerations of the legislative intentions behind the review of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II).

Read the full document.

Today, 19 March 2020, the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) welcomes the initiative of the European Commission (EC) and wishes to share the views of Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) on this consultation. CSDs share many of the views of the European Commission expressed in the consultation. Our consultation response focusses mainly on tokens other than stablecoins.

In addition to the answers to the consultation questions, ECSDA’s main considerations regarding the consultation are the following:

1. CSDs innovate, including using DLT. ECSDA members have been constantly working on increasing efficiency and finding innovative solutions, while complying with the EU legislation and in constant dialogue with the market stakeholders. Many CSDs are working on innovation projects, including DLT-based solutions, and some are already using DLT as part of their core system or ancillary services in production. CSDs aim at supporting any business models and mature technology that may contribute to an efficient and safe market infrastructure for any type of assets.

2. Current EU legislation (like CSDR, SFD and FCD) is technology-neutral and fit for purpose for investment tokens. It was built for achieving the goal of investor protection and mitigation of systemic risks, not to support a specific technology. It provides for key safeguards enabling stakeholders, such as issuers, intermediaries and other service providers, to operate in a clear environment with limited risk. These safeguards are relevant for servicing any type of assets, disregarding the underlying technology used. Hence, we share the perspective expressed in the consultation that any future legislation should also be technology-neutral.

3. Incorporating crypto-assets not falling under the current regulation into the existing financial regulatory framework, where appropriate, will inject trust and legal certainty, enable their quick adoption, address financial stability, consumer protection and market integrity needs. In the cases where this would not be appropriate (e.g. stablecoins) and, hence, where there may be a bespoke regime (involving a different regulatory framework and/or approach of the authorities), stakeholders, in particular issuers and investors, will gain by being serviced by a trusted entity. It might be considered whether the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures would provide the right basis for its regulation.

Read the full response

On Monday, 16 March 2020, ECSDA responded to the European Commission on Digital Operational Resilience.

ECSDA strongly supports the European Commission (EC) in pursuing the work on operational resilience and extending the resilience expectations to all relevant financial market stakeholders.

We believe that this has a potential to increase the overall level of financial stability of the European financial services network and its investor protection.

The ability of a Central Securities Depository (CSD) to build and maintain its operational integrity and the full range of operational capabilities, is a key determining factor to conduct CSD business in due care of financial stability. Hence, CSDs find it important to contribute to the construction of the future European operational resilience framework.

Our views can be summarised around the following main considerations, the importance of which we would like to ask the EC to consider:

• Convergence of National Competent Authorities approaches
• Comprehensiveness of the framework and interdependency of actors
• Risk-based approach

Read the full response.