European Council and Parliament reach an agreement on the Central Security Depository Regulation REFIT Procedure!
This concludes a long process that aims to reduce compliance costs and regulatory burdens for CSDs, simplifying the passport regime and also enhancing cooperation among supervisors.
All of these aspects aim to make the EU Capital Markets Union more effective and more attractive.
ECSDA welcomes the review of the CSDR.
We thank the European Commission for the opportunity to provide our contribution. We look forward to working alongside stakeholders in pursuit of a more competitive and resilient Capital Markets Union!
The European Commission has published the proposal for the review of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation – a key action in the 2020 CMU Action Plan.
We look forward to responding to the call for feedback by delving into the detail of the proposal. Together with the ECSDA Members and key stakeholders, we are keen to contribute to ensuring a competitive and resilient European financial market!”
Today, 10 February, The Central Depository and Clearing Company, Inc. (SKDD) informs capital market participants and the interested public that on 10 February 2022, the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA) announced on its website that HANFA had issued a Decision granting approval to SKDD as a central securities depository under Regulation (EU) no. 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on improving the settlement of securities in the European Union and on central securities depositories and amending Directives 98/26 / EC and 2014/65 / EU and Regulation (EU) no. 236/2012 (CSDR).
SKDD will start providing services in accordance with the CSDR on 14 February 2022, when the amended SKDD acts come into force: Rules and Instructions as well as Fee Schedule. The amended acts are also complied with the provisions of the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the settlement discipline regime, except for the rules on buy-in, the application of which has been postponed.
1 February 2022 is the day of the entry into force of the Central Securities Depositories (CSD) Regulation (Regulation (EU) 909/2014) settlement penalties requirements. The requirements can be found on the website of the European Securities and Markets Authority. Most European CSDs are activating the mechanism on that day.
Many answers to the CSD participants’ questions on how the requirements will be implemented by CSDs can be found in the ECSDA Penalties Framework. Its version dated 5 October 2021 will be used for the set-up of the CSDs’ mechanisms as of 1 February 2022 and provides many answers to the frequently raised questions. More information about how the individual CSDs are applying settlement penalties requirements is provided by their website.
ECSDA uses the opportunity to remind the key milestones of the monthly reporting and collection/distribution process.
To ensure that the penalties processes are running smoothly, CSDs will be following the indicative timeline of the monthly process outlined below. Should the monthly reports be delayed for some reasons (e.g. a delay on the CSD side for a technical reason or a T2S delay), the CSD will only proceed with the subsequent steps of the monthly process after the participants receive the monthly reports. Section 12.2 of the Framework describes the handling of exceptions.
Source: ECSDA Penalties framework.
If an appeal based on a daily report is required, it should be addressed to the CSD as soon as practically possible, to be taken into account on time before the monthly payment request is sent to a participant. (For T2S CSDs, no change is possible after the 10th Penalties Business Day. The end of appeal for cross-CSD penalties is also be shorter than for intra-CSD; please refer to the communication of the individual CSD.) The amounts mentioned in the monthly report must be the ones collected and distributed. Penalties subject to an appeal submitted on time will be removed before the monthly report is sent, thus these will not appear on the penalties monthly reports. After the monthly process has been concluded, no further adjustments for the penalties received and distributed should be done by CSDs.
We encourage CSD participants to refer to the basics of the appeal mechanism, e.g. in the ECSDA Framework and the individual CSDs´ governing documents to limit queries and appeals to the extent possible. CSDs particularly ask the participants to verify the validity of reason for appeal before submitting it. This would avoid drawing upon the highly solicited CSD expert attention without a valid reason and ensure more efficient treatment of valid appeals.
Euronext Securities Oslo implements CSDR in Norway
On 28 January 2022, Euronext Securities Oslo (ES-OSL) obtained approval from the Norwegian FSA (NFSA) to operate as a Central Securities Depository in accordance with EUs Central Securities Depositories Regulation, (CSDR).
CSDR settlement discipline will then be introduced from 1 March.
On 1 July 2021, the European Commission issued its Report on the outcome of the consultation on the CSDR Review. This Report summarises the main areas to be made subject to the future EC proposal and speaks about the areas where actions are not needed.
Areas that the EC may include in the CSDR REFIT:
• Settlement discipline: possible amendments to the settlement discipline framework, in particular the mandatory buy-in rules, to make it more proportionate – subject to an impact assessment. The EC recognises that clarifications to settlement penalties regime are long-awaited;
• Supervision;
• Domestic and cross-border provision of services;
• Banking-type ancillary services;
• Third country CSDs;
• Technological innovation.
The EC Proposal of CSDR REFIT is planned for Q4 2021/Q1 2022.
From today, 12/04/2021, ATHEXCSD will be providing the CSD services as stipulated in the ATHEXCSD Rulebook and the implementing Resolutions of the ATHEXCSD’s Board of Directors.