With T2S in place, the focus keeps shifting beyond the “must-haves”

VIDEO | Against a dark macro and business backdrop, the opening session of PostTrade 360° Helsinki on Tuesday morning saw Euroclear Finland’s Hanna Vainio and SEB’s head of institutional investor services Saija Korkala still optimistic about the rapid progress from the post-trade point of view. 

This session was sponsored by Euroclear Finland.

“After ten years with the have-to-dos, it is refreshing to be able to focus on the different needs of the clients”, said Hanna Vainio, CEO of her country’s central securities depository Euroclear Finland, as the first session of the PostTrade 360° Helsinki took place on Tuesday.  

Reaping the advantages of today’s data capabilities is now one of the areas that bear promise. Implementing standards is another, and while underlying costs are moving in the wrong direction, work to contain them will be important for the clients.

For a background, SEB’s Saija Korkala listed several challenges in the current context: inflation, corporate savings programmes, and geopolitical tensions …

“Let’s face it, there’s no good news,” Hanna Vainio agreed.

Euroclear Finland recently completed its implementation of the pan-European settlement platform Target2-Securities, T2S. With North America moving to a T+1 standard settlement cycle already in the spring of 2024, faster settlement processes are expected in Europe, too. 

“T+1 will come,” predicted Hanna Vainio, “… and it will have an impact on the whole chain”.

The conference programme is led by SEB’s Göran Fors, many-times moderator of PostTrade 360° conferences including Helsinki’s.