Euroclear rolls out new shareholder identification service following SRD II introduction 

InvestorInsight is a cloud-based service for issuers and intermediaries across three of Euroclear’s CSDs. 

By Jonathan Watkins

Euroclear has launched a new shareholder identification service called InvestorInsight across its central securities depositories (CSDs) in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

The group – known as ESES CSDs – will roll out the cloudbased service for issuers and intermediaries. 

InvestorInsight allows issuers to manage their disclosure requests and receive a complete view of all their shareholders in respect of new standards defined by the new Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II). 

This new level of transparency, which includes full monitoring of shareholder responses and producing data reports on collected information, will create opportunities for issuers to improve their corporate governance and engagement with their investor base. 

The launch represents an important milestone in fostering direct communication between issuers and their shareholders while bringing increased efficiencies to the market, said Isabelle Delorme, chief business officer of ESES. 

Euroclear said that during the pilot phase the platform identified shareholders from over 130 countries; 600 intermediaries connected to InvestorInsight; more than 300,000 shareholders were identified and shareholder coverage consisted of 95% of the total number of shares  for certain companies. 

“As a member of the pilot group on the InvestorInsight shareholder identification project, we benefited from the professionalism and engagement of the Euroclear teams during each step of this challenging initiative until its completion, said Franck Brunet, securities department manager at Gecina. 

The launch is the first regulatory linked initiative this year from Euroclear in a four-month period defined by Brexit and bond launches in Asia for the group. 

The transfer of Irish securities from the CREST in the UK to its European CSD was a priority post-Brexit and was successfully completed in March. 

Meanwhile, Euroclear’s endeavours in the bond issues and distribution space in partnerships with Asian exchanges this year have spanned recent months as it looks to provider issuers with direct exposure to a wider foreign investor base and access a deeper liquidity pool. 

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