settlement – ECSDA

Joint EU T+1 Industry Task Force issues its report

Today, ECSDA together with other industry associations is publishing the Joint industry report on the shortening of the settlement cycle to T+1. On this occasion, ECSDA would like to highlight the following key points:

The European CSD Association is very pleased with the finalisation of the joint industry report on T+1. However, the current attempt to define recommendations and requirements in the Joint report shall be considered very preliminary at this stage.
To advance, only an EU-wide governance with a clear mandate will be capable of recommending the necessary changes and defining a reliable timeline for achieving an efficient T+1 settlement cycle. We believe it is necessary to create a structure at the EU level with a mandate from the authorities and reporting to ESMA to adopt the recommendations supported by further operational impact analysis, similar to other countries (ex. UK).
ECSDA believes that the EU should proceed in coordination and alignment with the UK and Switzerland in their adoption of T+1. A clear indication of the date of the move should be made under the appropriate EU governance as soon as possible. However, much depends on the changes to be implemented, and a careful impact assessment must be made, amongst others to consider a potential need for changes in T2S or any other CSD settlement platform.

Please read the full report.

ECSDA updates the Settlement CSDR Penalties Framework

Today, 11 September 2024, ECSDA issues the update of the ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework.

This version of the document reflects the implementation of the amendment of Article 19 CSDR SDR concerning the collection and redistribution of penalties. As per such amendment, the process applied to non-cleared transactions will now also be applied to cleared ones. ECSDA is pleased to have been able to implement a legislative change allowing for a single regime applicable to both cleared and non-cleared transactions as a result of the thorough discussions with the authorities and CCPs.

The changes in the document are highlighted in light grey, and are mostly covering the removal of specific treatment of cleared transactions.

Please read the full document.

Register for the ECSDA Conference 2024 in Brussels!

We are excited to announce that the registration for the ECSDA Conference 2024 is now open!

This year’s conference will take place on 19 November at the Auditorium of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) in Brussels, rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères 10, 1000 Brussels.

The ECSDA Annual Conference will capitalise upon the achievements of the WFC Meeting organised by ECSDA and CSD Prague in May 2023. It will bring together the CSD ecosystem thought leaders and visionaries, participants and most advanced technological suppliers helping the community in building the European and global financial markets. We will concert the views with the leading European policy-makers and regulators and advise them on the post-trade priorities for building a true single European capital market.
The topics of settlement efficiency and shortening of the settlement cycle, new CMU priorities, FMI interoperability on settlement of Digital Assets and others will be under the attention of the Conference speakers and participants.

For more details and to secure your spot, please visit the conference website. We look forward to welcoming you to Brussels in November!

ECSDA publishes its Settlement efficiency considerations

In November, one year and a half after the implementation of the Settlement Discipline Regime, the ECSDA Settlement Working Group is releasing this discussion paper to share its preliminary analysis about the main root causes of settlement fails in Europe, as far as visible at the level of CSDs and reported through a survey by their participants. The intention is to share some initial recommendations to improve the settlement efficiency in Europe.

The deep attention of CSDs to settlement efficiency is driven by one of their main missions which is to support market efficiency and financial stability. Settlement fails stand in the way of efficiency by generating undue costs, creating further frictions for the connected transactions and ultimately being a driver of systemic risk. If a participant is expecting to receive securities or cash on the intended settlement date but is not receiving them because of a settlement fail from its counterparty, there is a risk that the affected participant is also unable to meet its obligations with other counterparties. That might result in a potential “domino effect” and be a cause of systemic risk.

However, in our view, allowing for a lower level of fails is preferable to aspiring to full efficiency, as it might lead to an unreasonable level of rigidity in financial markets and result in high costs (for pre-funding in addition to the necessary ecosystem technology upgrades). A certain level of tolerance is instrumental to the well-functioning financial markets aspiring for high levels of liquidity and settlement velocity.

This paper is, therefore, looking at how to reduce the number of fails, while not reducing the volume and value of transactions to be settled.

Read the full document.

ECSDA issues its updated CSDR Penalties Framework

Today, 28 April 2023 ECSDA issued the update of the ECSDA CSDR Settlement fails Penalties Framework.
The change takes into account the postponement of the collection of payment by CSD participants giving them an additional day to collect the payment from the underlying customers:

PFoDs Trade Date (TD) – from 15th to 16th Day
Payment Date – from 17th to 18th Day

ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework last updated 28/04/2023

ECSDA issues 2023 penalties calendar

The European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) issues the 2023 calendar, which can be found below.

In the calendar, you will find highlighted the key dates of the penalties life cycle as follows:

End of appeal period – 10th PBD
Monthly report – 14th PBD
Payment date:
a. 17th PBD until February penalties, e.g., March payment
b. 18th PBD from March penalties, e.g., April payment

The payment date will be postponed by 1 PBD, from March penalties, e.g., April payment, as a result of the activity in the Calendar TF with industry associations.

We take the opportunity to thank AFME, EACH, AGC, EFAMA, IA Members, and other associations participating in the Industry Settlement Fails Penalties Calendar task force and look forward to working with you in the future.

We wish you a happy year-end holiday!

The ECSDA team

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 response to ESMA consultation on the amendment on Article 19

ECSDA welcomes the ESMA initiative of consulting the relevant stakeholders on the change of the dedicated penalties collection and distribution process for cleared transactions, as currently foreseen under Article 19 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1229 (CDR).
ECSDA is generally supportive of the ESMA proposal. In addition, the following elements are essential for CSDs:

that further light is shed on the interaction between CSDR Article 7(11) and the changed Article 19 (and eventually, recital 22),
receiving the information on the timeline for the entry into force of the regime as soon as possible, and
that the date of activation of the regime is foreseen on the first business day of the month.

In the interest of clarity, we suggest structurally clarifying the treatment of CCP transactions and penalties in CSDR itself, ideally as part of the CSDR Refit exercise.

Read the full response.