EIS going live in January

From January 2024, all new EU debt securities (i.e. new ISINs for EU-Bonds and EU-Bills) issued by the European Union and EURATOM, represented by the European Commission, will be settled through a Eurosystem-based post trade settlement infrastructure – the EU Issuance Service (EIS).  

The EIS will enable EU debt securities to be settled in the Target2-Securities (T2S) settlement infrastructure, aligning the settlement process for EU debt securities with that of large EU sovereign issuers and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Under this natural step in the development of the EU as one of the largest issuers of euro-denominated securities, the National Bank of Belgium (NBB-SSS) will take the role of the issuer Central Securities Depository and settlement agent (Issuer-CSD), while the European Central Bank (ECB) will be the paying agent.

Tapping of EU debt securities first issued before January 2024 will continue to follow the Commission’s pre-EIS post-trade arrangements, comprising of BNP Paribas Securities Services as settlement agent and Clearstream Banking Luxembourg or Euroclear as (I)CSD.

You can read more about the functioning of the EIS in our dedicated new factsheet here.