00:00What are going to be the main drivers of growth through 2026 for Euroclear?
00:06Good morning. Well, actually, we have really increased in all the different business lines
00:12of Euroclear. I must say that 2025 has been a record year in terms of market valuation as well.
00:19So our assets under custody have grown substantially to 43 trillion. But also the
00:25volatility has been remarkable. And we have increased the turnover of the settlement structure
00:31by 20 percent. And this has been really done across all the different asset classes. So
00:36typically, much more, many more issuances in Eurobonds, in domestic assets, but also the
00:43funds business continue to increase, primarily ETFs. Not a big surprise, I suspect, to you.
00:49But yeah, as I said, really, it's across geographies, across asset classes. And
00:54we are, of course, extremely grateful to our clients for the trust they put in us.
01:02Yeah. And certainly a part of the conversation in 2025 as well was the question mark around
01:07those Russian assets that, of course, are held by Euroclear, what, more than 230 billion US dollars
01:13or so. How has that discussion impacted the business? Have you seen, for example, Chinese
01:18clients rethinking whether or not they want to be working with Euroclear?
01:22Well, first of all, what I would like to say that, indeed, I'm extremely also grateful to
01:28my people because, you know, despite all that we have had to navigate the Russian topic,
01:34especially at the end of the year, we've continued to deliver day after day, you know, our services
01:39to our clients. To come back specifically to your question, we have seen, of course, a number
01:45of clients being a little bit anxious about, you know, the discussion that took place at
01:52the end of the year. I think that everybody was really adamant to make sure that we would
01:57continue to respect the rule of law. And so, yes, we have had many questions from different
02:02clients, but I wouldn't say that we have seen any clients leaving Euroclear. And I think the
02:06figures are just a good illustration of my point.
02:10I wonder what is your response, Valerie, to the developments back in December, where we see
02:17Europe decide not to use the Russian assets at Euroclear as some kind of backstop to a loan
02:22to Ukraine. How pleased were you with that? And would it have been possible to come to some kind
02:28of agreement? Was there a version of using those assets that would have been OK with Euroclear? Or was
02:33this always just a non-starter? Well, different things to your question. So, first of all, we
02:40were very pleased to see that Europe decided indeed to continue to fund Ukraine. I think that's
02:45something that we were also, as a European, very happy to see happening. I think that was the right
02:50decision from the European Commission and from the European member states. On the reparation loan
02:58itself, I mean, there were a number of unintended consequences, which were, you know, very much
03:07almost a blocking factors in the sense that even with, I mean, a good restructuring of a reparation
03:17loan, I mean, there were a number of risks that would not have been mitigated. It was extremely
03:24complex. And it would have cost as well to the European member states. But despite that, it would
03:30have certainly put in question quite substantially the confidence of some investors into the European
03:40capital markets. And so, we feel that the decision which has been taken has been a very wise one,
03:47while at the same time we continue to support Ukraine, of course, but at the same time we continued
03:52as well to maintain the respect of the rule of law and therefore stability of the capital markets.
03:59Valerie, there was a lot of conversation, though, about crafting an agreement that would share those
04:03risks around Europe. Was that never going to be possible? And which are the risks that you say
04:08would not have been mitigated?
04:11Well, there were. I mean, of course, I mean, and I must say I commend the European Commission
04:16for their listening skills and you're trying also to understand the consequences and trying to find
04:23solutions. But there were, I mean, typically, you know, there was a very, it was very innovative from
04:29a legal perspective, meaning, therefore, that it would have been certainly questionable, meaning that
04:35it would be, it could have been prone to, I mean, legal claims. But more importantly, I think it was very
04:41difficult to, to work on the perception that this was not confiscation of assets. And of course, any
04:48confiscation of assets would lead to retaliation risks, retaliation risks directly against Euroclear,
04:53but also against European, European assets in Russia. So that was certainly one of the big risks that
04:59could not have been mitigated. And, and also the point about the perception, again, as I said, of the
05:07non-respect of the rule of law, and therefore loss of confidence in, in the European market. So I think that
05:14they were because a lot of things were very technical on one side, but on the other side, it was also about,
05:20you know, the perception that some investors, some countries would have had. And this is quite difficult to,
05:27I would say, to control a perception. In addition, there were still also, sorry, sorry,
05:35let me finish your thought. No, and I was saying, and in addition, there were also quite a number of
05:41technicalities behind the loan, which had not been, you know, finalized, and for which there was still
05:48a lot of question marks, especially in terms of liquidity risk, but also in terms of credit risk
05:54that we would have had to borrow. Okay. Final quick question. We are seeing a lot of volatility in a
06:01number of asset classes at the moment. The metals is kind of one area we're seeing it, but there's
06:05plenty of others as well. Any hiccups, any problems, any issues that we need to be aware of? Are the
06:11systems holding up? Are there any clearing problems related to any of this? And do you expect the
06:14volatility to continue? I believe there will be, there will continue to be volatility because there
06:20are quite a lot of uncertainty in the market, not only through the geopolitical risk, but also
06:25with all the new technology and how the new technology are impacting also the economics.
06:31So I do expect to see volatility in the market. Now, our role is to make sure that whatever volatility
06:38is the market, we continue to offer stability. So, I mean, I can assure you that, I mean, when we are in
06:45this middle of this type of volatile moments, our teams are really making sure that we can support
06:52the market and bring some stability in this uncertainty.
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