“For me, Sweden joining T2S in Q2 2030 is a big thing”

The increasingly European flavours of the historically Nordic PostTrade 360° event make for a great combination – or ask BNP Paribas’ Ekaterina Rous. To her, one of this year’s conference highlights was the announcement by Euroclear Nordics CEO Hanna Vainio of a surprisingly imminent enrolment with pan-European securities settlement service Target2–Securities (T2S). 

“It seems like we have a clearer agenda for the Nordics in the coming years,” says Ekaterina Rous, Sub-Custody Relationship Manager for the Nordics with Securities Services, BNP Paribas, who has long been closely engaged with the Nordic securities services market. She welcomes Hanna Vainio’s new timetable for Sweden’s T2S process, and positive notes from a session dedicated to the idea of Norway joining, too. “For me, Sweden joining T2S in Q2 2030 is a big thing.”

(Previous speculation put 2030 rather as the start of Swedish implementation, with completion expected only towards the mid 2030s, so, the acceleration is notable.) 

Ekaterina Rous sees the growth of the conference, and the growing proportion of extra-Nordic and even extra-European delegates, as positive.  

“The two main CSD groups in the Nordics are two big European groups, Euronext and Euroclear. It’s an example of how these European and Nordic flavours are a good combination.”

Beside the networking around custody services, she points to the value of being able to explore a broad range of vendors.

“For me, it was interesting to see what products they are developing, and compare it to what we are working on in-house. It can go anywhere from the use of tax solutions to the use of AI, to other digital tools, as well as offerings designed to enhance T+1 efficiency.”  

So far her takeaways. Is there any message she would like to promote from her side? Her motto would be “collaboration”. 

“Yes, I think it’s a key message that regulators, financial market infrastructures, customers, tech providers … we should all work together to achieve a solution for the good of everyone, actually,” says Ekaterina Rous. 

“Post trade has come to be seen as an essential element for the growth of capital markets and of financing. This is important, and the message is that we remain a people business, where trust is important through all steps of the process: trading, settlement, the relationship, ensuring the buyer protection, and so on.”