ESMA updates its CSDR Q&As

The CSDR Q&As provide common answers to question regarding practical issues on the implementation of the new CSDR regime. The latest batch of CSDR Q&As covers four topics. The first new Q&A clarifies that CSDs intending to provide data reporting services as defined under MIFID II should fully comply with the requirements set out therein. The second and third Q&As relate to risk monitoring committees for CSDs belonging to the same group of companies. More precisely, the second Q&A confirms that each CSD should have its own committees and the third one, that such committees could have the same membership under certain conditions (that the membership of each committee is adapted to each CSD, and that the rules on composition, outsourcing of staff and management of conflicts of interests are strictly complied with).

The fourth Q&A clarifies that TARGET2-Securities (T2S) should not be subject to the provisions applicable to critical service providers, given that the organisational and operational safety, efficiency and resilience of T2S should be ensured through the dedicated legal, regulatory and operational framework and agreed governance arrangements.

Q&As are an important tool to promote common supervisory approaches and practices in the application of CSDR The content of this document is aimed at competent authorities under the Regulation to ensure that in their supervisory activities, their actions are converging along the lines of the responses adopted by ESMA. It should also help investors and other market participants by providing clarity on the CSDR requirements.

The aim of CSDR is to harmonise certain aspects of the settlement cycle and settlement discipline and to provide a set of common requirements for CSDs operating securities settlement systems across the EU.