Amsterdam/Brussels/Paris - Euroclear central securities depositories in Belgium, France and the Netherlands have agreed to sign up for the Eurosystem's TARGET2 Securities (T2S) project.

Euroclear said it consulted with national regulators and will make outsourcing arrangements before signing the T2S Framework Agreement.

"The three Euroclear group central securities depositories are reflecting local market sentiment by taking the decision to sign the T2S Framework Agreement," said Joel Merere, chairman of the boards of the three Euroclear CSDs.

"As the first and only group of markets in continental Europe to have consolidated and harmonised transaction settlement and custody services on a shared platform, we appreciate the benefits of large-scale processing consolidation and harmonisation that T2S has the capacity to provide."

Clients will continue to have accounts directly with the respective CSD, while the migration date and fees for connecting to and using T2S will be determined after market consultation, Euroclear said.

The three CSDs settled 87 trillion euros of securities transactions in 2011, representing 31 million transactions, and held about 6 trillion euros of assets for clients.

That compares with more than 580 trillion euros settled by the entire Euroclear group that year, representing 163 million transactions and more than 22 trillion euros of assets held for clients.