VIDEO INTERVIEW | T+1, settlement discipline, harmonisation such as through ISO 20022, and incoming DLT-based solutions … The list of challenges to CSDs is long, when Jesús Benito of SIX, head of the CSDs both in Spain and Switzerland, sums up his picture. Yet, it is easy to miss the magnitude of the changes that have already taken place. Watch our 5-minute interview with Jesús ahead of his speaking session at Swift’s Sibos conference in Toronto. 

“10 years ago we were very different in many, many aspects. Now, with T2S, and with the harmonisation in many aspects on the corporate assets services, we have harmonised a lot. This is something we will continue because we are not at the end, but we have made a lot of good improvement so far,” says Jesús Benito.

With the EU’s financial market split over many jurisdictions and CSDs, EU politicians and bureaucrats seek to encourage growing crossborder competition on the issuance and securities settlement services. The standardisation through regulatory framework CSDR and the settlement system Target2-Securities (T2S) are means to that end. So where does Jesús Benito see Europe’s CSD competition going? 

“This competition is already starting and increasing every year, so we will be seeing more competition among the different CSDs around Europe.” 

Jesús Benito’s Tuesday speaking slot is titled “Challenges in post trade”. 

Sibos 2023 played out in Toronto from 18 to 21 September, with about 9,000 registered delegates. We were there, producing mainly video interviews, but also some text pieces. Overview our coverage here.