Clearstream has established a new domestic link to the Romanian equities market, enabling Romanian stocks to be settled and safekept through its international infrastructure.
The new link is part of Clearstream’s wider strategy to link emerging and frontier markets to its international central securities depository (ICSD) structure.
Societe Generale’s Romanian subsidiary will act as the sub-custodian and local depository partner for Clearstream, connecting in turn to the Romanian CSD Depozitarul Central.
“Being able to enter emerging markets via an internationally established post-trade environment is very attractive to investors all over the world,” Jan Willems, Head of Global Markets at Clearstream.
“Clearstream now making Romanian local equities available to international investors will add to the market’s attractiveness, increasing demand and thus liquidity of Romanian equities. The local market will benefit from a wider range of sources of funding, contributing to its further development.”
Clearstream had previously set up a sub-custody deal with Societe Generale in 2018 for the Romanian government debt market. In May, it added local corporate bonds to its ICSD infrastructure, becoming the only ICSD with an entire range of Romanian instruments.
Romania has also become one of the fastest growing markets in the Central and Eastern European region, after its local stock exchange – the Bucharest Stock Exchange – was upgraded from ‘frontier’ to ‘emerging’ market status in September last year.
Earlier this month, Clearstream launched a new project to explore how it can improve clearing and settlement processes in emerging and frontier markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America.