Deutsche Börse said national securities depositories may no longer have sufficient liquidity to guarantee efficient placement following its connection to TARGET2-Securities, which aims to harmonize cross-border securities settlements in the Eurozone.
Clearstream, Deutsche Börse Group’s international central securities depository, migrated to T2S, the European Central Bank’s settlement platform, last month.
T2S allows settlement in central bank money across borders, central securities depositories and currencies so there is no difference between domestic and cross-border transactions. The settlement platform began operating in 2015 after being launched by the European Central Bank in 2008 to end fragmentation in securities settlement across the Eurozone as the cost of cross-border transactions could be 10 times more expensive than domestic transactions.
Deutsche Börse said in its annual report for 2016 that it expects growth opportunities from joining T2S. “As the largest participant in this new system, we can use it to offer our clients additional services,” added the German exchange.
Clearstream joined T2S platform in the fourth migration wave alongside the central securities depositories of Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria. The connection of Clearstream led to a doubling of volumes on the platform and means that more than 80% of the total volume has now migrated to the platform.
Deutsche Börse Group said issuers should review their placement strategies, as the national CSDs may no longer have sufficient liquidity to guarantee efficient placement in the markets on a medium-term horizon.
“Completely new solutions will evolve next year, developed both within the teams and in cooperation with clients,” added the report. “It was ultimately a client request that prompted us to address the new requirements of issuers.”
Marc Robert-Nicoud, chief executive of Clearstream Holding, said in a statement last week that full market integration is needed to make T2S a success.
“Enormous amounts of data are inserted into and have to be processed by the European Central Bank’s securities settlement platform T2S day by day,” added Clearstream. “The system works perfectly. But this does not mean that T2S has already achieved its ultimate goal.”
Clearstream continued that T2S and the implementation of a new payment system TARGET2 show how pan-European cooperation can deliver progressive concrete solutions. T2S has required the co-operation of more than 20 central securities depositories, national central banks and the European Central Bank over the last decade.
The CSD said joint initiatives such as T2S, but also new market-driven fintech initiatives, progressing digitization and the growing importance of big data have the potential to further the integration of European financial markets.
“In order to fully harness the potential and wider benefits of such developments, we need to clear away some serious obstacles on the path to a Capital Markets Union in Europe”, added Robert-Nicoud. “Further alignment will be necessary of the various European regulatory initiatives with the objectives of market integration initiatives such as T2S.”