Publications – ECSDA

ECSDA’s feedback to the European Commission’s consultation on SIU

ECSDA’s feedback to the European Commission’s consultation on the Savings and Investments Union: Regulation fostering EU market integration and efficient supervision

ECSDA welcomes the intention of the European Commission to further develop the capital markets’ integration and supervision within the Union. We also appreciate the opportunity to contribute and share our views on the proposed measures, drawing on our members’ expertise and forward-looking ideas.

For decades, ECSDA and its Members worked on advancing the following points, which we believe are relevant within the SIU context:

– Boosted liquidity – continuing to pursue the removal of barriers through efficient market interconnection and attracting the attention of States to take action, where still needed.
– Innovative and competitive markets supported by resiliency & safety, financial stability and investor protection with clear accountability.
– Support for European companies’ growth journey and their enhanced access to capital.

Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) are at the core of major parts of the proposal, which makes it particularly important for the association to provide its perspective in support of the SIU objectives and the legislative process. We see the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) as a unique opportunity to continue driving growth, enhancing the EU’s global competitiveness, and shaping the future of its financial markets.

It is with these objectives in mind that we comment on the major considerations in relation to settlement and central (including DLT-based) securities depositories in the MISP proposal.
Read the full answer.

European CSDs set a timeline for ISO 20022

Today, 26 May 2023, ECSDA publishes its considerations on ISO messages for financial transactions and recommendations on their use. The basis for CSD engagement with local communities and relevant stakeholders and further preparations. The messages for General meetings should be solely in ISO 20022 as from 2026, and Corporate actions and market claims should only rely on ISO 20022 as from 2030.

The standardisation of messages has been a key enabler to improve the level of Straight Through Processing (STP) of (I)CSDs services over the past decades. The way (I)CSDs communicate with their participants is in constant evolution.
The main standard used today in the post-trade industry is ISO 15022, but in the last few years, the usage of a more sophisticated version of ISO standard, ISO 20022, has increased.
The evolution of the ISO standard has been driven by the following key factors:
i) Creation of market infrastructures (e.g., T2S),
ii) EU legislation requirements (e.g., SRDII),
iii) Modernisation of (I)CSDs’ own IT systems, and
iv) Definition of new market standards (e.g., SCoRE).

European CSDs aim at further increasing the standardisation and efficiency of post- and pre-trade processes. The emergence of the new ISO 20022 standard for messaging is in line with this objective. Although along with the benefits, it also brought challenges for (I) CSDs and their participants; a coexistence period between the existing formats (ISO 15022 and/or proprietary messages) and new formats (ISO 20022) is needed to ensure a smooth transition to a new message format.
The ECSDA Board agreed to set up a dedicated Messaging Task Force to assess the current state of use of the different messaging standards and plans related to the migration to ISO 20022, as well as provide recommendations on the way forward.

Besides some background information and the expected evolution of the ISO standards in the European CSDs community, this paper provides recommendations on:
– The rules to put in place to ensure a smooth transition during the co-existence of the two ISO standards;
– The timeline for the discontinuation of ISO 15022 for some business domains;
– The usage of ISO 20022 data dictionary as a way to structure the information beyond the message formats.

Please note that these are recommendations and ECSDA intends to discuss them with the relevant market stakeholders, where needed.
While this paper was in preparation, ISSA, and ECSDA have also been working together on a survey addressed to the key financial industry actors about ISO 20022. The conclusions of the present paper should not be in contradiction with the analysis of the joint ISSA – ECSDA survey.

Read the full document.

ECSDA Response to the OECD Pillar 1 Report

On 19 August, the European Central Securities Depositories Associations (ECSDA) welcomed the Progress Report. In the response to the consultation, we are however highlighting the need to calibrate further the scope of activities contained in the term ‘Investment Institution’.

Please read the full response.

ECSDA issues its updated CSDR Penalties Framework

On 5 October 2021, the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) publishes the updated version of the ECSDA CSDR Settlement Fails Penalties Framework.

The Framework is the effort of compliance with the Regulation and harmonisation of settlement penalties mechanisms across CSDs subject to CSDR or regulation alike and constitutes a market practice focusing on the settlement fails related requirements in the Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) Regulation and its Regulatory Technical Standards on Settlement Discipline, aiming at improving “the safety and efficiency of securities settlement”.

The current version of the document provides the changes in comparison with the previous one highlighted in grey and the assumptions pending ESMA and EC feedback in yellow.

ECSDA also makes public operational details of CSDs Settlement Discipline implementation via a questionnaire, regularly updated.

ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework last updated 05/10/2021
ECSDA response to practical questions of CSD participants on CSDR penalties implementation – last updated 20/09/2021

ECSDA response to the NFRD consultation

On 11 June, ECSDA responded to the European Commission consultation on the review of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Please see the full response

Depozitarul Central receives the licence under the EU CSD Regulation

On 19 December, Depozitarul Central, the Romanian CSD member of ECSDA obtained a licence to operate under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR).

Please read the full release.

The list of CSDs authorised under the CSDR is provided on the CSD Facts page of the website.

Euroclear Bank receives a licence under the EU CSD Regulation

On 5 December, Euroclear Bank, the Brussels-based international central securities depository and ECSDA member announced that it has obtained a licence to operate under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR).

Please read the full release.

The list of CSDs authorised under the CSDR is provided on the CSD Facts page of the website.

Updated ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework

On 29 January, ECSDA published the updated version of the ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework.

This version of the ECSDA Framework is based on the comments received during the public consultation in the summer 2018, further deep reflection among CSD experts and includes the confirmation of some working assumptions by relevant European authorities.

The “ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework”, is the effort of compliance with the CSD Regulation. It aims at harmonisation of settlement penalties mechanisms across CSDs subject to CSDR or (potentially) equivalent regulation. It intends to provide a clear, safe and efficient Framework for settlement penalties solutions of CSDs, both the ones that will be using T2S penalties mechanism and other CSDs.

This updated version of the document will be presented and discussed with the main stakeholders on 18 February in Frankfurt. If you have comments on the Framework and an interest to attend the event, please let us know and we will check, if the capacity allows us to invite you to join.

Updated version 17 April 2020