The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released a long-awaited public statement confirming the postponement of the mandatory buy-in component of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR). Released on 17 December, the European securities market regulator indicated that it has sent a letter to the European Commission calling for an “urgent change” in CSDR to allow the application date of the buy-in regime to be postponed from its proposed 1 February 2022 implementation. Copies of this letter were also sent to the European Parliament and Council. This highlighted the difficulties faced by market participants in adapting to implementation of the buy-in regime on this date. Other elements of the CSDR settlement discipline regime, specifically the introduction of cash penalties and settlement fails reporting, will proceed on the 1 February 2022 live date as planned. The co-legislators have now agreed to decouple the date of application for the buy-in regime from that for cash penalties and fails reporting. This will enable ESMA to establish draft technical standards proposing the delay of the buy-in component. With this development, ESMA indicates that it does not expect national competent authorities to prioritise supervisory actions relating to the CSDR buy-in regime — recognising a need to minimise costs to market participants involved in making changes to their systems and processes and then needing to revise these at a later date, in line with subsequent amendments to the buy-in regime.
