[author: Stephen Hancock]

On March 1, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a press release announcing that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, it will recognize Euroclear UK and Ireland Ltd, the UK central securities depository (UK CSD), as a third country CSD under the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (909/2014) (CSDR).

ESMA has adopted this recognition decision in order to allow the UK CSD to serve Irish securities and to avoid any negative impact on the Irish securities market. ESMA has previously communicated that its board of supervisors supports continued access to the UK CSD.

The UK CSD will be recognized to provide its services to the EU, having been assessed as meeting the recognition conditions under Article 25 of the CSDR.

The recognition decision would take effect on the date following Brexit date, under a no-deal Brexit scenario.