One of the main challenges in the Italian market is the harmonisation of corporate actions on flows, with market participants actively working to implement a smooth approach to new and standardised market practices.

Following the definition of T2S functionalities and specifications, covering principally securities settlement activities, some significant additional work is in progress to define common standards for various related activities that hinge on the common settlement platform.

The Italian National User Group (NUG) is promoting discussion on the harmonisation of the insolvency procedures to be followed in T2S, one of the many items that requires common principles under wider legal, regulatory and supervisory perspectives.

“Following the introduction of second layer matching in September 2012, Citi has been a strong advocate of the adoption of market standards to optimise usage across market participants,” says securities country manager Franco Carulli. “This materialised in early 2014 when Monte Titoli organised a working group of custodians. As a result the BIC11 was agreed as the market standard and adopted in April, thereby significantly reducing the inefficient in the market.”