Nasdaq has announced the cross-border merger of the central securities depositories (CSDs) of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into a single licensed legal entity - Nasdaq CSD Societas Europaea. Nasdaq CSD is the first CSD in the EU to be reauthorized under the European CSD Regulation (CSDR). This is the first time a common authorization, supervision and regulatory framework for CSDs has been instituted at a pan-European level.

Following the cross-border merger Nasdaq CSD has joined the pan-European securities settlement platform TARGET2-Securities (T2S), a financial infrastructure project initiated by the European Central Bank. T2S is intended to improve the European post-trade industry and make cross-border settlements easier and more efficient.

The merger of Nasdaq's Baltic CSDs aims to increase the competitiveness of the post-trade ecosystem in the Baltic region and ensure more integrated securities trading and post-trade services for companies and investors in the Baltics and abroad. The legal entity of Nasdaq CSD will be based in Latvia, with local branches in Estonia and Lithuania. Client servicing and local business will continue in all three countries as before.