Europe CSDs turn to cloud, AI and tokenization

Euronext confirmed plans for its central securities depository to settle equities for Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris from September 2026. The company said market participants will be able to choose among Euronext Securities, Euroclear, Clearstream or SIX for settlement on Euronext markets.

Euronext described the arrangement as multi-provider access. Pierre Davoust, head of Euronext Securities, said the option of multiple CSDs has already reduced fees for issuers and trading participants.

Euroclear and Clearstream continue to hold large shares of assets issued in the EU. Euroclear accounts for more than half of EU-issued equities and fixed income; combined with Clearstream the two firms handle about 85% of those assets, Sebastian Danloy, Euroclear’s chief business officer, noted while welcoming the clarified settlement options.

Executives debated whether further capital consolidation is needed or whether better platform integration is the priority. Davoust said capital consolidation does not automatically create a uniform client experience. Euroclear has developed EasyFocus+ to give clients a consolidated view across its CSDs, while Clearstream uses a unified front end called Xact and shared collateral and corporate action platforms.

Technology investments are a central focus. Euroclear is developing a Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, Clearstream is building a D7 digital post-trade platform, and SIX has integrated a digital exchange into its securities services. Firms reported work on APIs and interfaces that let clients access both traditional book-entry securities and tokenized instruments through the same connection. Francisco Bejar, head of custody at SIX, described the sector as actively modernizing and combining traditional and digital workflows.

Views differ on cloud adoption. Bejar called cloud use “a no brainer” for efficiency and data handling, while Davoust said some core market infrastructure software should remain on servers owned in Europe. Clearstream reported that moving key services to the cloud nearly doubled settlement throughput and allowed faster release cycles for software updates.

CSDs are piloting artificial intelligence for productivity and new client services. Davoust characterized AI as a productivity shock that could multiply service delivery. Executives said tokenization and other digital-asset projects need clear business cases and broad market liquidity to succeed. Danloy said digital assets will work only if all parts of the ecosystem benefit; Sam Riley of Clearstream emphasized the ongoing role of CSDs as registrars and record-keepers when securities are tokenized.

Cost and fee transparency drew attention after a report presented at Sibos 2025 compared European CSD charges with North American levels. The report found a range of differences, including extreme comparisons that showed higher European fees in some measures. CSD leaders acknowledged the need to simplify pricing and reduce ancillary line items and said they are engaging with the European Central Bank on T2S pricing and resilience, including requests for tiered pricing options.

The TARGET2‑Securities platform remains central to cross-border settlement plans but has experienced service incidents and uneven adoption. Participants pointed to a February 2025 outage and noted that some countries, such as Sweden, have scheduled later T2S entry. CSD executives called for improved operational resilience and faster change-management processes from the ECB and market participants.

Executives said their organizations are consolidating platforms and investing in cloud, AI and tokenization while continuing to run legacy systems. Sam Riley summed up the shifting profile of the sector by saying, “I think post-trade is becoming quite sexy.”