Marketable assets

Eligibility criteria

Eligibility of debt instruments issued on the basis of DG Bank-Umwandlungsgesetz

In order to be eligible as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations, marketable assets must comply with the eligibility criteria as laid down in the "General framework" . Additional temporary measures on collateral eligibility are laid down in the “Temporary framework” , and are applicable until further notice.

Eligibility of debt instruments issued on the basis of DG Bank-Umwandlungsgesetz

Debt instruments issued on the basis of the DG Bank-Umwandlungsgesetz do not qualify as European Economic Area legislative covered bonds, as defined in the General Documentation (Article 2 (24a)).

Therefore, on 29 December 2022 the Governing Council decided that these instruments should be removed from the list of eligible assets on 28 February 2023 and, hence, cannot be used as collateral as of 1 March 2023. This period will provide counterparties that have been using the instruments as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations sufficient time to replace them.

Eligibility assessment procedure

Proactive assessment by NCBs once the asset is issued

Prior to the publication on the ECB website in the list of eligible marketable assets, national central banks (NCBs) proactively assess the eligibility of the marketable assets. The NCB of the country where the asset is admitted to trading on a regulated market or traded on a non-regulated market is responsible for the assessment of the eligibility of the marketable asset.

The eligibility assessment process only begins once the asset is issued and all the necessary documentation mentioned below is available to the respective NCB. Both NCBs and ECB do not confirm the eligibility of an asset prior to its issuance.

Once the assessment procedure is completed, the marketable asset will be included in the list of eligible marketable assets provided it complies with the ECB’s eligibility criteria.

If a marketable asset does not appear on the list of eligible marketable assets but you believe it should be there, please contact the NCB of the country where the asset is admitted to trading on a regulated market or on an acceptable non-regulated market. To facilitate the assessment procedure, it might be helpful to provide the responsible NCB with the following information:

• rating letter from the credit rating agencies;
• rating agencies’ pre-sale reports (not their web pages);
• final offering circular for the transaction;
• ISIN code of the security; Reuters/Bloomberg page codes;
• confirmation of the form of the notes and the common safekeeper for international debt instruments issued through the international central securities depositories (ICSDs).⁽¹⁾

⁽¹⁾ International debt instruments in global bearer form which are issued through the ICSDs (in practice, usually with XS ISIN codes) must be issued solely in the form of new global notes (NGNs). However, those in global registered form must be issued under the new safekeeping structure (NSS) for international debt instruments. Securities issued through national CSDs are not subject to NGN or NSS requirements.

Acceptable markets

One eligibility criterion for marketable assets is that the debt instrument must be admitted to trading on a regulated market as defined in the Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments, or traded on certain non-regulated markets specified by the ECB.

Regulated markets

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) maintains a list of regulated markets which can be accessed under registers.esma.europa.eu.

Non-regulated markets

The assessment of non-regulated markets is made by the Eurosystem and is based on three principles: safety, transparency, and accessibility.

The three principles are defined by the Eurosystem exclusively in terms of the performance of the Eurosystem’s collateral management function. The selection process is not aimed at assessing the intrinsic quality of the various markets.

• Safety is taken to mean certainty with regard to transactions, in particular certainty on the validity and enforceability of transactions.
• Transparency is taken to mean unimpeded access to information on the market’s rules of procedure and operation, the financial features of the assets, the price formation mechanism, and the relevant prices and quantities (quotes, interest rates, trading volumes, outstanding amounts, etc.).
• Accessibility refers to the Eurosystem’s ability to take part in and have access to the market; a market is accessible for collateral management purposes if its rules of procedure and operation allow the Eurosystem to obtain information and conduct transactions when needed for these purposes. The current list of non-regulated markets which are deemed to comply with these three principles are listed in the table below.

Recognised agencies

Recognised supranational issuers

Updated: 10 January 2020

• African Development Bank
• Asian Development Bank
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• Bank for International Settlements
• Caribbean Development Bank
• Council of Europe Development Bank
• European Atomic Energy Community
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• European Financial Stability Facility
• European Investment Bank
• European Investment Fund
• European Stability Mechanism
• European Union
• Inter-American Development Bank
• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• International Development Association
• International Finance Corporation
• International Finance Facility for Immunisation
• International Monetary Fund
• Islamic Development Bank
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
• Nordic Investment Bank