The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched the EU Issuance Service (EIS), a new infrastructure for the settlement of primary market issuances and initial distribution of EU debt securities. A total of about €800 billion in debt securities are expected to be issued on behalf of the EU as part of the post-Covid recovery programme, Next Generation EU. Around half of these securities have already been issued.
The EIS will now be used by the commission to issue and settle all debt securities. Transactions will be settled in central bank money in the TARGET2-Securities (T2S) system. In a press release, ECB described EIS as “an efficient and neutral European service that will provide all stakeholders with a level playing field for access to securities issued by the Commission”.
The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) will act as issuer-CSD, and the ECB as paying agent. The commission has already settled its first transaction with EIS, a bill auction that raised €2.2 billion.
