Belgium: New link to National Bank of Belgium (NBB) to offer debt instruments
As a next milestone in implementing our enhanced Investor-CSD solution, effective
22 October 2018
Clearstream Banking AG1 is pleased to announce the activation of the direct access to the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and the eligibility of the NBB issued debt instruments for settlement in T2S.
Customer benefits
- Highest protection of assets under collective safe custody (CSC);
- CBF as a single access to the securities issued by Belgian Issuer CSDs (Euroclear Belgium since 9 April and NBB as of 22 October);
- End to end Asset Services thanks to our local partner KBC Bank NV, Brussels;
- All NBB-eligible instruments available for increased liquidity pooling;
- Settlement of NBB securities in central bank money;
- New Connectivity solutions, with single user interface and harmonised A2A formats.
Type of securities
The securities to be eligible for holding in CBF in CSC are, but not limited to2
- Government bonds: classical bonds and OLOs;
- Treasury certificates (TCs);
- Treasury bills (BTBs);
- Certificates of Deposit (CDs);
- Commercial Paper (CP).
Tax summary
CBF operates only an X account (exempt account) in NBB’s X/N system such that, from a fiscal point of view, all customers that hold NBB-eligible securities through Clearstream must do so exclusively on behalf of beneficial owners (including themselves, if applicable) that qualify for exemption from Belgian withholding tax.
Without proper certification (One-Time Certificate) in place at account level, customers will not be able to settle any NBB issued instruments in Clearstream.
Further details, including Tax forms, will be provided in a separate tax announcement.
Settlement
Provided that the proper tax certification is in place for relevant customer accounts, the below settlement transactions can take place:
- OTC transactions with another CBF participant (intra-CSD) or T2S participants (cross-CSD)3
- Stock-exchange instructions coming from LION (non cleared) will be routed to CBF accounts (instead of CBFi accounts) as soon as these instruments are made eligible in CBF with the CSC status. If the account does not have the status X (exempt), these instructions will be recycled until the relevant tax documentation has been provided.
- Stock-exchange instructions cleared by Eurex Clearing will continue to settle in CBFi accounts (as today).
- Customers can realign their position from their CBFi accounts to their CBF accounts and vice versa.
Market claims
In line with market practice, the market claims will be processed on a gross basis and without tax adjustment.
Further information
For the detailed market specifics for the NBB issued securities, please refer to the OneClearstream Functional Specifications for CBF.
Further details on the OneClearstream service activation as well as the new Market link guide and Realignment guide will be available in due course.
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1. This announcement is published by Clearstream Banking AG (CBF), registered office at Mergenthalerallee 61, 65760 Eschborn, Germany, registered with the Commercial Register of the District Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under number HRB 7500.
2. All securities will be eligible upon activation of the link. However the scope of ISINs to be made eligible at OneClearstream activation will follow the same rules as for previous OneClearstream activations.
3. Provided that the counterparty CSD has established the relevant set-up to allow Cross-CSD settlement with CBF for these securities.