Market infrastructure – Belgium
Institutions and organisation
Stock exchange
The Brussels Stock Exchange is a wholly owned subsidiary of Euronext, the European stock exchange for Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris (www.euronext.com).
CSD
Belgium has two Central Securities Depositories:
- Euroclear Belgium
Euroclear Belgium (fromerly CIK SA/NV) acts as central depository for all domestic and foreign Belgian certificates (including most International Depository Receipts (IDRs)), warrants and corporate bonds listed on Euronext Brussels.
Euroclear Belgium is a subsidiary of Euroclear SA/NV (Euroclear Belgium – Euroclear). - Nationale Bank van België (NBB) / Banque Nationale de Belgique (BNB)1 (www.nbb.be)
The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) is the CSD for Belgian dematerialised securities (OLOs, Treasury Bills, Treasury Certificates, dematerialised Certificates of Deposit and Commercial Paper) and for classical/traditional government bonds that have been admitted into the X/N (exempt/non-exempt) system. All settlements are processed via the NBB Securities Settlement System (formerly known as NBB Clearing) that operates on the basis of X and N accounts.
Regulatory structure
The supervisory system, established on 1 April 2011, has two autonomous supervisors:
- The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) is responsible for micro and macro prudential supervision of banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
- The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), is responsible for supervising the financial markets and the information disseminated by companies, certain categories of financial service providers and intermediaries, compliance by financial intermediaries with conduct of business rules, the marketing of financial products to the general public, and supplementary pensions. The Belgian government has also tasked the FSMA with contributing to the financial education of savers and investors.
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1. The National Bank of Belgium is referred to as NBB throughout these Market Profile pages.