Launch of EU Issuance Service – with settlement in T2S

19 January 2024

The EU Issuance Service (EIS), which will be used by the European Commission to issue EU debt securities, was successfully launched on 17 January 2024. In total, debt securities of around €800 billion are expected to be issued on behalf of the European Union as part of the Next Generation EU programme, of which around one half has already been issued.

From now on, the EIS will be used by the Commission to issue and settle all new debt securities. Relying on settlement in central bank money in TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the EIS will be an efficient and neutral European service that will provide all stakeholders with a level playing field for access to securities issued by the Commission. Under the EIS, the Commission will issue EU debt securities in the National Bank of Belgium Securities Settlement System (NBB-SSS), which acts as the issuer central securities depository (CSD), distributing the securities in the primary market via its links with investor CSDs throughout the EU. The European Central Bank (ECB) acts as paying agent.

The EIS is governed by the principles laid down in a public Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Commission, the National Bank of Belgium and the ECB in July 2022.