Dublin and Brussels – 18 March 2021 – Euronext and Euroclear Bank today announced the successful migration of issuer CSD services for 50 Irish corporate issuers and listed companies from CREST (operated by Euroclear UK & Ireland) to Euroclear Bank (an International Central Securities Depository), effective 15 March 2021. The settlement of Irish securities traded on Euronext Dublin markets on 15 March 2021 took place successfully in Euroclear Bank on 17 March 2021.
Up until 12 March 2021, Euroclear UK & Ireland’s CREST system has been used for securities issuance and settlement services for Irish securities. However, in a post-Brexit environment the continued use of CREST is not permitted and is not compliant with EU Central Securities Depository Regulation (“CSDR”). Under CSDR, Article 25, securities governed by the law of a Member State must be issued into an EU27-authorised CSD, or a CSD in a third country that has been granted equivalence allowing the CSD to provide services into a Member State. Therefore this change has been implemented to ensure compliance with CSDR, and it secures the long term issuer CSD arrangements for Irish securities in a post-Brexit environment.
The migration satisfies this legislative requirement, provides long-term certainty regarding CSD issuance and settlement arrangements for the Irish market within an EU-based CSD, and delivers a robust post-trade infrastructure for Irish market participants. As part of this project, all Irish ETFs successfully transitioned to an international ICSD arrangement in advance of the migration for corporate issuers.
About Euroclear Euroclear group is the financial industry’s trusted provider of post trade services. Euroclear provides settlement, safe-keeping and servicing of domestic and cross-border securities for bonds, equities and derivatives to investment funds. Euroclear is a proven resilient capital market infrastructure committed to delivering risk-mitigation, automation and efficiency at scale for its global client franchise. The Euroclear group includes Euroclear Bank – which is rated AA+ by Fitch Ratings and AA by Standard & Poor’s – as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear UK & Ireland. The Euroclear group settled the equivalent of EUR 897 trillion in securities transactions in 2020, representing 276 million domestic and cross-border transactions, and held EUR 32.8 trillion in assets for clients by end 2020.