Fourteen additional Central Securities Depositories sign the T2S Framework Agreement


30 June 2012 was the deadline for European central securities depositories (CSDs) to indicate whether or not they would sign the T2S Framework Agreement. The Framework Agreement is the contract which governs the legal relationship between the Eurosystem and each CSD participating in T2S, the future IT platform of the Eurosystem for the settlement of securities transactions in central bank money. The signing of the T2S Framework Agreement is a key milestone in the T2S project, which is set to go live in June 2015.

In addition to a first group of nine CSDs which had already signed up for T2S in May 2012, another fourteen CSDs have now announced that they will join T2S, namely:

• AS Eesti Väärtpaberikeskus (Estonia);
• Centrálny depozitár cenných papierov SR, a. s. (Slovakia);
• Cyprus Stock Exchange;
• Euroclear Belgium;
• Euroclear Finland Oy;
• Euroclear France;
• Euroclear Nederland;
• Interbolsa – Sociedade Gestora de Sistemas de Liquidação e de Sistemas Centralizados de Valores Mobiliários, S.A. (Portugal);
• KDD - Centralna klirinško depotna družba, d.d. (Slovenia);
• Központi Elszámolóház és Értéktár Zrt. – KELER (Hungary);
• Lietuvos centrinis vertybinių popierių depozitoriumas (Lithuania);
• Malta Stock Exchange;
• Oesterreichische Kontrollbank Aktiengesellschaft (Austria); and
• SIX SIS Ltd. (Switzerland).

They join a group that already includes: Bank of Greece Securities Settlement System (BOGS) , Clearstream Banking AG (Germany), Depozitarul Central S.A. (Romania), Iberclear – BME Group (Spain), LuxCSD S.A. (Luxembourg), Monte Titoli S.p.A. (Italy), National Bank of Belgium Securities Settlement System (NBB-SSS), VP LUX S.á.r.l. (Luxembourg) and VP Securities A/S (Denmark), which had already signed up in May 2012 in Frankfurt.

This brings to a total of 23 the number of CSDs committed to participating in T2S, including almost all CSDs based in the euro area as well as six CSDs based outside the euro area.

About T2S

T2S is one of the largest infrastructure projects launched by the Eurosystem so far. It will bring substantial benefits to the European post-trading industry by providing a single pan-European platform for securities settlement in central bank money. Today, the provision of post-trading services remains highly fragmented along national lines, and the consequences are higher costs for cross-border settlement, more risk and complicated procedures. As a common platform, T2S will reduce costs and increase efficiency by fostering harmonisation of technical and regulatory matters, and it will contribute to a more stable financial market.