Our several years’ efforts paid off. The National Bank of Slovakia granted Centrálny depozitár cenných papierov SR, a.s. (CDCP) authorisation to operate in compliance with valid European legislation effective from 28 January 2019.
Depositories operating in EU were obliged to apply for authorisation in compliance with the Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on improving securities settlement in the European Union and on central securities depositories and amending Directives 98/26/EC and 2014/65/EU and Regulation (EU) No 236/2012 (hereinafter the „Regulation“). “CDCP applied for the authorisation in September 2017, and documents submitted by the depository and provided information were assessed very positively not only by the National Bank of Slovakia but also by the Eurosystem”, stated Martin Wiedermann, Managing Director of CDCP.
Thus we are compliant with all requirements for organisation and other operational aspects of central depositories established in the European Union (EU). The central depositories operating in the EU, among them also CDCP, are subject to identical, directly applicable requirements, standards and rules ensuring provision of standardised scope of services. „The central depository established in the Slovak Republic has to be compliant with the equally demanding requirements as any other central depository operating on developed capital market“, added Martin Wiedermann.
Demanding preparations
In course of the last three years, during preparation of application for authorisation under the European legislation, CDCP adapted its activities and processes to requirements set by the Regulation. CDCP adapted to strictly specified organisational requirements and requirements for depository governing bodies, established several committees to monitor risks and created independent functions. Services that CDCP from now provides in compliance with granted authorisation are harmonised and are classified as core services and ancillary services of central depositories of non-banking type. CDCP is compliant also with requirements for capital level in the depository and implemented measures for maintaining capital adequacy depending on risks related to delivered services. From other requirements resulting from the Regulation, that CDCP is compliant with, implementation of harmonised requirements for participants or risk management in operation of a central depository can be mentioned as examples. Intention to harmonise and standardise activities of EU depositories in order to facilitate their cross-border cooperation is evident also from the requirement for application of communication procedures based on the international standards, which CDCP met by implementing of ISO standard 20022. „I consider granting of the authorisation in compliance with the Regulation for next important milestone in the history of CDCP and confirmation of continual development and operation improvement“, concluded M. Wiedermann.
Decision of the National Bank of Slovakia on granting the authorisation is on the web site of the NBS: https://nbs.sk/vyroky/15027
The European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), which member is CDCP from the year 2006, have sent congratulations to CDCP on this occasion and published information on granted authorisation on its web site: https://ecsda.eu/archives/8338.
