Reducing risk. Optimizing liquidity. Enhancing resilience. 

Settlement and custody are the foundation of efficient ETF market operations — and Clearstream’s infrastructure is built to scale with your growth. We connect you across Europe’s key markets with harmonized, reliable post-trade services, helping reduce risk, simplify operations, and enhance liquidity access. 

Pan-European Access through T2S

Clearstream is fully integrated with T2S, providing real-time, Delivery vs. Payment (DvP) settlement across 20+ European markets. 
Clients benefit from reduced operational complexity, harmonized settlement cycles, and faster post-trade reconciliation. 

Custody Services

Beyond settlement, Clearstream offers a harmonized custody model for ETFs, and other securities - streamlining client operations, reducing cost and risk, and simplifying reporting. 
Our custody platform also facilitates swift corporate action processing and tax services, adding more operational value for clients managing large-scale ETF operations. 

Fails mitigation and Lending solutions

ETF settlement fail rates can spike to 5–20% in volatile conditions Clearstream’s embedded fails coverage solutions help mitigate these risks by ensuring liquidity for settlement coverage. 
As markets transition to T+1 cycles across jurisdictions, these programs will be essential to maintain high settlement efficiency and avoid penalties. 

CCP Connectivity

Direct links to Eurex and LCH facilitate clearing for ETFs across major European trading venues, reducing counterparty risk and enabling smoother post-trade processing for brokers and custodians. Clearstream now offers highly competitive settlement pricing for cleared ETF transactions — making us not just efficient, but also cost-effective. 

Additional Advantages

• Compatible with Central Bank and Commercial Bank Money  
• Highly scalable — suitable for both high-volume market makers and institutional flows. 
• Compliance with CSDR settlement discipline regime. 

Streamlining ETF execution for scalable distribution. 

 As ETFs become essential to retail and digital portfolios, reliable, streamlined order routing is critical. Clearstream’s Vestima platform removes operational complexity, enabling faster execution without exchange membership or system overhauls. 

Fund-Style Order Routing

Clearstream’s Vestima platform enables distributors, neobrokers, and platforms to process ETFs using operational workflows identical to those for mutual funds. 
This reduces time-to-market, simplifies IT system integration, and lowers operational risk. 

Execution Access

Vestima is connected to major market makers and brokers, allowing clients to access on-exchange and OTC execution liquidity without the need for direct memberships at exchange. 

Scalability for Smaller Institutions

Retail banks , wealth managers, and smaller platforms can leverage Clearstream’s infrastructure without significant upfront investment, enabling broader ETF access for retail investors across Europe. 

Additional Advantages

• Best execution principles can be easily supported. 
• Consolidated settlement flows reduce operational errors and rework. 
• Simplified reporting and position management across asset classes. 

Maximize ETF liquidity. Minimize settlement risk. 

Clearstream’s ETF lending solutions support both strategic and fail-driven lending needs, offering borrowers access to a new pool of ETF liquidity across ICSD and CSD/T2S environments. 

Fails Coverage Lending

Through our ASL and ASL principal fails lending programs, clients can borrow ETFs to prevent settlement fails and boost efficiency—especially critical with rising fail rates and the upcoming shift to T+1. 

Strategic Lending Program

Borrowers can tap into ETF supply to support trading strategies and manage inventory needs. The new liquidity pool enables improved intraday funding and greater market flexibility. 

Lender Benefits

Clients lending their ETFs gain additional yield and reduce cost of ownership. Lent positions also benefit from life cycle management and are full collateralization in line with agreed eligibility profiles. 

Additional Highlights

• Deep ETF supply across all lending streams 
• Optimized cost of ownership and balance sheet efficiency 
• End-to-end integration with Clearstream custody and settlement platforms 
• Collateralized via triparty collateral management solution  

Mobilize ETF assets — optimize liquidity, enhance performance. 

ETFs are an increasingly strategic asset class for collateral. Clearstream enables the use of ETFs in both triparty collateral management solutions and digital tokenized swaps via HQLAx, giving clients maximum flexibility to mobilize assets where and when they need them. 

Triparty Collateral Management

Clearstream offers integrated triparty collateral management services, allowing clients to manage ETFs, bonds, and equities within a single operational framework — reducing complexity and increasing efficiency. 

HQLAx Integration

Through tokenized collateral transfer capabilities via HQLAx, Clearstream clients can swap ETF collateral digitally and in real-time, accelerating collateral movements and improving liquidity management. 

Regulatory Capital Optimization

Mobilizing ETF assets efficiently allows clients to optimize their regulatory capital requirements, improve leverage ratios, and better manage funding costs — essential advantages for financial institutions under Basel III/IV and SFDR regulatory regimes. 

Additional Advantages

• Real-time collateral substitution. 
• Multi-currency collateral management. 
• Digital assets readiness.

Streamline distribution and connect with asset managers through trusted fund data. 

Clearstream supports ETF distribution through its Fund Centre and Compass platforms, providing structured access to: 

• Detailed ETF and fund documentation 
• Distributor and asset manager contact information 
• Market intelligence for onboarding and engagement 

Whether you’re expanding retail reach or streamlining institutional onboarding, our data-driven tools give you visibility across the fund ecosystem — helping you connect, comply, and grow.