Clifford Chance

Transaction Services Newsletter March 2012

19 March 2012

The draft Regulation on Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) has been published by the European Commission at last. The idea for a regulatory statute for CSDs was first floated in 2004, but was then parked because many of the objectives were perceived to be achievable through industry cooperation. It’s not entirely clear what has changed since then: the primary policy objective has always been to create a single market in the post-trade airspace, and yet securities settlement is still configured along national lines. There are a number of reasons for that, which have a lot to do with differences in company law between member states, and with the wish of member state governments to protect their local CSD as a symbol of national prestige. It is perhaps unclear whether the new piece of legislation is going to change that; Target2-Securities (T2S) will probably have a bigger impact.

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