Eurozone CSDs Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France and Euroclear Nederland will sign up to the eurosystem's T2S project.
Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France and Euroclear Nederland are a group of CSDs within the eurozone that process client transactions on a shared platform and operate with harmonised market rules and practices.
The three CSDs used the ESES (Euroclear Settlement of Euronextzone Securities) platform to settle €87 trillion of securities transactions in 2011, representing 31 million transactions, and to hold approximately €6 trillion of assets for clients.
The aim of T2S is to provide a single pan-European platform for securities settlement in central bank money.
The parent company of the three CSDs, Euroclear, has provided its support and their boards have agreed for each CSD to sign the T2S Framework Agreement.
They engaged in extensive market consultation and dialogue with national regulators before committing to T2S.
They intend to finalise their assessment of CSD outsourcing arrangements with relevant regulators before signing the T2S Framework Agreement.
Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France and Euroclear Nederland will outsource settlement transaction processing to T2S. Clients of the three CSDs will continue to have accounts directly with the respective CSD and receive the full range of post-trade services from that CSD.
The migration date and fees for connecting to and using T2S will be determined after completion of market consultation.
Joël Mérère, the chairman of the boards of Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France and Euroclear Nederland, said: “The three Euroclear group central securities depositories are reflecting local market sentiment by taking the decision to sign the T2S Framework Agreement.”
“As the first and only group of markets in continental Europe to have consolidated and harmonised transaction settlement and custody services on a shared platform, we appreciate the benefits of large-scale processing consolidation and harmonisation that T2S has the capacity to provide.”
Valérie Urbain, the CEO of the three CSDs added: “Euroclear has been preparing to operate within a T2S environment for some time. Our asset servicing capabilities are expanding, and we are introducing collateral management services for clients in the Belgian, French and Dutch markets, as well as with some local central banks.”
“The depth and breadth of the domestic and cross-border post-trade services we offer will clearly help clients get the most out of the new operating environment in the easiest way possible.”
CSDs such as the Bank of Greece Securities Settlement System (Greece), Clearstream Banking (Germany) and Iberclear (Spain) have also agreed to sign up to T2S.
