The ECB has been considering a concept of European Issuance since 2017, where the ECB/Euro system could play an active role in setting up and running such a platform. In May 2019, a market consultation triggered the initiative on a European Distribution of Debt Instruments (EDDI), based on two components:

• The pre-issuance component considered setting up as a centralized auctioning tool for debt instruments that would have limited impact on the current competitive space for issuance; and
• The post-trade component considered to develop into a fully-fledged “issuer CSD” to issue EU government and potentially corporate debt from a “neutral” environment.

The ECB never fully released the consultation results, and with changes in the ECB governance the initiative lost momentum. Change in the ECB presidency and a clear and imminent need to support the post-pandemic EU recovery packages, the project received renewed interest.

A Debt Issuance Market Contact Group (DIMCG) was established in third quarter 2020 and a new survey to collect information and data relevant for assessing the risks, costs and potential inefficiencies in the debt issuance transaction chain was launched in December 2020.

Neutrality and costs are drivers of the ECB initiative, which bases its assessment on three main “pillars”:

• Pillar 1: Identification of EU debt issuance issues and opportunities.
• Pillar 2: Problem identification and standard setting/methodology.
• Pillar 3: Assessment of existing/emerging market solutions that could solve pillar 1 and 2.

The DIMCG issued its final report in December 2021 with recommendations for the way forward. In 2023, the Contact Group met for the last time before being dissolved to discuss the progress made by the industry in terms of the harmonisation of recommendations put forward by the DIMCG.

For further information on Deutsche Börse Group’s positioning on the matter, find our statements and position papers under Publications.