Brussels, 27/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 February, the member states' representatives to the European Union on the Coreper committee endorsed the provisional agreement reached by the Greek Presidency and European Parliament on 18 December on the draft EU regulation to harmonise the work of central securities depositories (CSDs).
The draft regulation introduces an obligation to represent all transferable securities in book entry form and to record them in CSDs before trading them on regulated venues (see EUROPE 10931). It harmonises settlement periods and settlement discipline regimes across the EU (no more than 2 working days after the transaction) and introduces a common set of rules, inspired by international standards, addressing risks in CSDs' operations and services. As a result, CSDs will benefit from uniform requirements and an EU-wide “passport”, which will help remove barriers to access to the market.
The regulation needs to be in place for the European Central Bank's “Target 2-Securities” securities settlement system to begin operating as planned in the eurozone in 2015. (MB)