Europe’s CSDs reshape post-trade on tech and fees

Euronext confirmed that its central securities depository will settle equity trades in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris from September 2026. The designation gives market participants the option to settle with Euronext Securities, Euroclear, Clearstream or SIX for trades on Euronext markets.

Pierre Davoust, head of Euronext Securities, said the four-way choice has already reduced prices for issuers and trading firms by increasing competitive pressure. The confirmation follows Euronext’s acquisition of local infrastructures and aligns with EU efforts to deepen capital market integration.

Euroclear and Clearstream remain the largest holders of EU-issued assets. Sebastian Danloy, Euroclear chief business officer, reported that Euroclear holds more than half of EU-issued assets and that Euroclear and Clearstream together account for roughly 85% of volumes on some measures.

The designation has sharpened debate over pricing. A report by the Association for Financial Markets in Europe compared European CSD fees with North America and found some fees can be substantially higher. The report also found international CSDs charge more than many domestic counterparts. Representatives from the major CSDs acknowledged the report prompted industry debate and described ongoing efforts to simplify pricing. They said direct comparisons can be misleading because international CSDs serve many markets and some charges are ancillary or legacy items that could be reduced through governance changes.

Technology upgrades are central to CSD strategies. Euroclear, Clearstream and SIX are deploying cloud-based systems, application programming interfaces and artificial intelligence, and developing digital-asset platforms such as Euroclear’s D-FMI and Clearstream’s D7. Francisco Bejar, head of custody at SIX, explained clients want pooled liquidity and a single point of access for both traditional and tokenized securities. Pierre Davoust called AI “a big productivity shock” for market infrastructures, and Sam Riley, CEO of Clearstream Securities Services, quipped that “post-trade is becoming quite sexy” as digital projects create new business lines.

CSDs differ on how to implement technology. Davoust argued for retaining control of core systems and using European-owned data centers for reasons of sovereignty. Bejar countered that cloud adoption is necessary for efficiency and data management. Riley pointed to measurable gains after migrating parts of Clearstream’s platform to the cloud, reporting nearly double settlement throughput. Danloy described hybrid approaches as feasible and emphasized improving client experience.

Operational resilience and pan‑European settlement remain on the agenda. CSD leaders continue to connect to the European Central Bank’s T2S platform, while raising concerns about costs, delays and recent outages. Participants asked the ECB to accelerate change-management processes and consider tiered pricing for certain asset classes to support retail and ETF activity under the proposed Savings and Investment Union. Shortening settlement cycles to T+1 continues to be an industry target and has influenced recent platform work.

Participants agreed on several practical priorities: simplifying fee structures, modernizing core platforms, and creating more consistent client experiences across markets. They also noted that digital-asset projects will need clear business cases to scale, and that central securities depositories will retain record-keeping and settlement roles for tokenized instruments.