1. Without prejudice to Titles III, IV or V of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, Member States shall require that investment firms from other Member States have the right of direct and indirect access to CCP, clearing and settlement systems in their territory for the purposes of finalising or arranging the finalisation of transactions in financial instruments.
Member States shall require that direct and indirect access of those investment firms to such facilities be subject to the same non-discriminatory, transparent and objective criteria as apply to local members or participants. Member States shall not restrict the use of those facilities to the clearing and settlement of transactions in financial instruments undertaken on a trading venue in their territory.
2. Member States shall require that regulated markets in their territory offer all their members or participants the right to designate the system for the settlement of transactions in financial instruments undertaken on that regulated market, subject to the following conditions:
(a) such links and arrangements between the designated settlement system and any other system or facility as are necessary to ensure the efficient and economic settlement of the transaction in question;
(b) agreement by the competent authority responsible for the supervision of the regulated market that technical conditions for settlement of transactions concluded on the regulated market through a settlement system other than that designated by the regulated market are such as to allow the smooth and orderly functioning of financial markets.
That assessment of the competent authority of the regulated market shall be without prejudice to the competencies of the national central banks as overseers of settlement systems or other supervisory authorities with competence in relation to such systems. The competent authority shall take into account the oversight/supervision already exercised by those institutions in order to avoid undue duplication of control.
