1.  The senior management of a CSD shall be of sufficiently good repute and experience so as to ensure the sound and prudent management of the CSD.

2.  A CSD shall have a management body of which at least one third, but no less than two, of its members are independent.

For the purposes of this Article, an independent member of the management body means a member of the management body who has no business, family or other relationship that raises a conflict of interest regarding the CSD concerned or its controlling shareholders, its management or its participants, and who has had no such relationship during the five years preceding their membership of the management body.

3.  The remuneration of the independent and other non-executive members of the management body shall not be linked to the business performance of the CSD.

4.  The management body shall be composed of suitable members of sufficiently good repute with an appropriate mix of skills, experience and knowledge of the entity and of the market. The non-executive members of the management body shall decide on a target for the representation of the under-represented gender in the management body and prepare a policy on how to increase the number of the under-represented gender in order to meet that target. The target, policy and its implementation shall be made public.

5.  A CSD shall clearly determine the role and responsibilities of the management body in accordance with the relevant national law. A CSD shall make the minutes of the meetings of the management body available to the competent authority and the auditor upon request.

6. The competent authority shall not authorise a CSD unless it has been informed of the identities of the shareholders or members, whether direct or indirect, natural or legal persons, that have qualifying holdings in the CSD and of the amounts of those holdings.

7. The competent authority shall refuse to authorise a CSD where it is not satisfied as to the suitability of the shareholders or members that have qualifying holdings in the CSD, taking into account the need to ensure the sound and prudent management of the CSD.

8. Where close links exist between the CSD and other natural or legal persons, the competent authority shall grant authorisation only where those links do not prevent the effective exercise of the supervisory functions of the competent authority.

9. Where the persons referred to in paragraph 6 exercise an influence which is likely to be prejudicial to the sound and prudent management of the CSD, the competent authority shall take appropriate measures to put an end to that situation, which may include the withdrawal of the authorisation of the CSD.

10. The competent authority shall refuse authorisation where the laws, regulations or administrative provisions of a third country governing one or more natural or legal persons with which the CSD has close links, or where difficulties involved in the enforcement of those laws, regulations or administrative provisions, prevent the effective exercise of the supervisory functions of the competent authority.

11. A CSD shall, without delay:

a) provide the competent authority with information regarding the ownership of the CSD, and, in particular, the identity and scale of interests of any person having a qualifying holding in the CSD;

(b) make public:

(i) the information provided to the competent authority under point (a); and

(ii) the transfer of ownership rights that results in a change in control of the CSD.