The migration of central security depositories (CSDs) from three European countries to the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) platform has been successfully completed. The four CSDs expected to be included in this round of migration – known as Wave 3 – were in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Wave 3 involved the transferral of Euroclear Settlement of Euronext-Zone Securities (ESES) CSDs to T2S platform. The ESES settlement platform is shared by the Belgian, Dutch and French markets. The Euroclear Settlement of Euronext-Zone Securities (ESES) covers all domestic securities in these three markets and financial institutions that meet certain requirements are able to gain access to the CSDs in the three markets through a common admission process. TS2 is the pan-European platform for securities settlement in central bank money.

Euroclear's Wave 3

According to Euroclear, T2S increases cross-border settlement efficiency in Europe and presents new opportunities for firms to access liquidity and finance their activity more effectively. It stated: “Through their migration to the T2S platform, Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France and Euroclear Nederland connect approximately 40 per cent of the total outstanding in corporate bonds, equities and funds, and 30 per cent of government bonds for T2S markets. Euroclear Finland will also join T2S as part of the final wave scheduled for 18 September 2017.”

The migration process was completed on 11 September and 343,898 balances and 122,519 pending instructions were received from ESES’s clients and were successfully migrated to the T2S platform. Euroclear's CEO, Tim Howell, commented: “The T2S project is a significant undertaking for Europe’s financial community, bringing many opportunities for cross-border trading and enhanced liquidity management.”

Wave 4 of the migration to T2S is expected in February 2017.