The Norwegian Securities Dealers Association (NFMF) has recommended that VPS, Norway's CSD, refrain from signing the T2S framework agreement, according to SEB Bank which released a translation of the consultation document.
Although being generally positive to standardisation efforts in Europe’s post trade landscape, NFMF noted that VPS should follow the development from a technical as well as commercial standpoint and to see which other CSD's and central banks choose to connect. It also called for an evaluation detailing which new service offerings can be expected as a result of T2S participation and a cost/benefit analysis for financial institutions.
In addition, NFMF said that costs of participation - to which VPS has allocated NOK 100 million ($17.4m) - should be carried by VPS owners and not its users, while also expressing concern that the domestic CSD has not described how costs will be recovered or how cost overruns will be covered.
T2S is an ECB project intended to improve the post-trading infrastructure in Europe by providing a single platform for securities settlement in central bank money. In an effort to secure participation, the ECB has announced "early bird" fee reductions for those country's signing on by April 2012.
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