European Depository Group Names Belghazi as First Secretary General
September 8, 2010
The trade group for European national and international securities depositories has tapped Soraya Belghazi, a European Central Bank executive, as its first secretary general and made Brussels its permanent home.
Until now, the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) had been operating as a loose network of 40 securities depositories. It was created through the merger of the European Central Securities Depositories Association and the Central and Eastern Central Securities Depositories Association in 1997.
Prior to joining ECSDA, Belghazi worked for the European Central Bank as a market structures specialist for two years. She was previously been a policy adviser on post-trade issues at the European Association of Co-operative Banks.
Belghazi's goal at ECSDA will be to provide information to member depositories on European policy issues and promote their viewpoints. Her appointment comes none too soon. With European regulators scrutinizing the post-trade clearing and settlement arena more, a more formal structure was certainly needed to ensure depositories have their say.
The ECB’s decision to take over the settlement functions of national European securities depositories through a new platform called Target2 Securities which has met with plenty of opposition.
“Although we have achieved a lot as an association over the years, the rapidly changing business and regulatory environment in Europe means that the time has come to increase the level of professionalism in the work of ECSDA,” says Joel Merere, chairman of ECSDA, whose office will now be located right next to the European Commission's. Merere is also executive director of international policy affairs at Euroclear SA, parent of international securities depository Euroclear Bank and several European national securities depositories.
Among ECSDA’s achievements: in January 2009, the trade group issued guidelines to improve connectivity among its depository members and in November 2006 it helped develop standards for pre-settlement matching for custodian banks and broker-dealers.
