Euronext Securities Introduces Harmonised Corporate Actions Service to Address Post-Trade Fragmentation in Europe

Euronext Securities, the central securities depository (CSD) network connecting European economies to global capital markets, Monday (April 22) announced the first go-live of its new harmonised corporate actions service.

The service, now available for Portuguese fixed income securities, uses a platform developed in partnership with software provider Vermeg to manage the entire lifecycle of corporate actions. It will be extended to Danish fixed income securities this year, and all asset classes across Euronext Securities' markets by the end of 2025.

The management of corporate actions plays a key role in the financial industry. However, the lack of standardisation and harmonisation across markets has led to fragmentation, translating into extra costs and complexity for issuers, investors, and financial intermediaries.

According to Euronext Securities, the new service addresses these challenges and delivers an efficient, automated and harmonised client experience across all Euronext Securities markets. It will allow users to manage their corporate actions across all the Euronext CSDs on a single efficient and user-friendly platform. The service fully adheres to corporate actions standards and applicable legislation such as the Shareholder Rights Directive II.

Pierre Davoust, Head of CSDs at Euronext, said: "This first step in the roll-out of our new harmonised corporate actions service is a major milestone towards delivering Euronext Securities' customers a best-in-class, harmonised client experience across Europe. I would like to warmly thank all customers across Europe who are helping us design and bring this new service to the market, supporting us in making a market-wide improvement. European capital markets suffer from fragmentation and complexity. Today's announcement is only the very first step in Euronext Securities' journey to tackle these challenges, and better connect European economies to global capital markets."