regulation – ECSDA

ECSDA Releases New Publication: “CSDs as Innovation Pillars”

Today, 17 July, ECSDA shared its latest publication: “CSDs as Innovation Pillars.”
In an era of rapid technological change and evolving regulation, the paper explores how Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) are innovating while remaining trusted anchors of stability in the financial system.

Key topics covered:

- - CSDs’ contribution in the EU’s competitiveness agenda
  - Legal certainty as a foundation for digital transformation
  - Concrete use cases involving DLT, AI, and Cloud
  - Contributions to ECB trials and fintech collaboration
  - Emerging AI applications across risk, operations, and client services

The document underscores that technology evolution is a continuum—not a disruption—for CSDs. With a strong, technology-neutral regulatory framework, CSDs are ideally positioned to lead the way toward a resilient, efficient, and innovative capital markets infrastructure.

Read the full document

ECSDA Board elects WG Chairs

On 29 November, the ECSDA Board meeting remotely elected the Chair of the Policy and the Settlement Working Groups.

The Policy WG will now be chaired by Chiara Rossetti, Senior Manager, Regulation for Euronext Securities Milan.

As a member of the ECSDA Policy Working Group since 2012, Chiara Rossetti has shown a strong commitment to the development of the advocacy activities of the Association. As Vice-Chair, she has been proactively engaged in the coordination of the various activities of the Policy Working Group, thanks also to the experience she gained in other post-trade industry working groups.

Ms Chiara Rossetti stated that it was an honour to have the opportunity to chair the Policy WG and to succeed the former chairs.

Mr Jesús Sánchez, Head of Settlement Services, SIX, will Chair the Settlement WG.

Mr Sánchez spent all his career in the settlement area and is well known within the settlement expert community in Europe as he is a member of several technical and steering groups of T2S. He is the Chairperson of the Market Settlement Efficiency group, since 2020.

Mr Sánchez stated that he is eager to have the opportunity to share his experience.

Congratulations to both of them!

The ECSDA Board seized the opportunity to thank Mr Italo di Lorenzo, former Chair of the WG for his commitment to the Policy WG as member and Chair and to Tim Werner, Clearstream, and Mathilde Joannet, Euroclear, respectively Chair and Vice Chair of the Settlement WG for their legacy to the work of the Settlement WG.

ECSDA responds to the EU Consultation on CSDR REFIT

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 full document can be found here.

EC issues consultation on CSDR review and Settlement Discipline

On Tuesday 8 December, the European Commission issued the public consultation on the CSDR review and Settlement Discipline Regulation.

The consultation covers the following topics:

CSDs authorisation & review and evaluation process (Art. 16 & 54 CSDR)
– Including Question 2 on the insertion of an end date for the grandfathering clause of CSDR
Cross-border provision of services in the EU (Art. 23(3) to 23(7))
Internalised settlement (Art. 9)
CSDR and technological innovation
Authorisation to provide banking ancillary services (Art. 54)
Scope (Art. 2(1)(8))
Settlement Discipline
Framework for third country CSDs (Art. 25)
Other areas to be potentially considered in the CSDR review (one open question)

The consultation runs until 2 February 2021.

Please find the full document here.

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

CMU HLF published its final report

On 10 June, the High-Level Forum on the Capital Markets Union organised under the hospices of the European Commission published its final report.

The report consists in 17 recommendations put forward with the intent of addressing relevant issues related to corporate access to finance, pan-European market architecture, retail investment and cross-border investment.

Recommendation on CSDR
The European Commission is invited to conduct a targeted review of Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) to strengthen the CSD passport and facilitate the servicing of domestic issuance in non-national currencies. This should be accompanied by measures to strengthen the supervisory convergence among National Competent Authorities (NCAs). These measures, taken jointly, should enhance the cross-border provision of settlement services in the EU.

Justification
A targeted review could usefully tackle the following issues:

CSD passporting and links
While the objective of CSDR is to create a “common CSD market” free of regulatory barriers and to offer CSDs a European passport, divergent application by NCAs of the rules according to which (I)CSDs should meet CSD links framework requirements and provide services in another Member State creates procedural and regulatory hurdles, fragmenting the post-trade landscape along national lines.
Cross-border payments and access to Central Bank and commercial liquidity
The CSDR has unintendedly limited access to global liquidity pools for CSDs without a “limited purpose banking license”. Consequently, these CSDs cannot service domestic issuance in other currencies, including sovereign debt. The CSDR foresees the possibility for CSDs without a banking licence to appoint a “designated credit institution”. However, such liquidity providers have not emerged yet. National Central Banks (NCBs) should facilitate non-domestic (I)CSDs to process settlement in Central Bank Money in other currencies (including those frequently used for issuance and settlement: GBP, CHF, USD), after taking due account of the implications of such access. Alternatively, the CSDR restrictions that prohibit CSDs holding a banking license to provide such services to other CSDs could be amended.
Supervision of CSDs
Divergence in national supervisory approaches is still an important fragmentation factor in the provision of settlement services that generates costs and limits the cross-border offer. Given that securities laws are not harmonised across EU 27, NCAs still have a role to play. Therefore, ESMA’s work within the current scope of its mandate in terms of convergence should be continued and strengthened. The aim should be to ensure convergence in supervisory approaches across the Member States to reduce administrative burdens on CSDs and to generate the value added for the EU financial markets in terms of the CSDR objectives.

Please read the full report

ECSDA views on the Future of European Post-Trade

Recently, the European Commission has launched a consultation on the Future of European Post-Trade, based on the conclusions of the European Post Trade Forum (EPTF). European CSDs thank the European Commission for the constructive and effective discussions at the EPTF, in which they have been deeply involved. In addition to the insight provided in the report resulting from the forum, Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) note several trends in their immediate ecosystem which are important to post-trade more widely.
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Better regulation in post trade

29 Jan 2016 – Responding to a call for evidence on the EU regulatory framework for financial services, ECSDA has identified several areas where the quality of law-making can be improved in relation to post trade services and the activities of central securities depositories in particular.

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