Criteria for establishing the substantial importance of settlement services
Article 6
1. The provision of settlement services as referred to in point 3 of Section A of the Annex to Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 by a CSD in a host Member State shall be considered to be of substantial importance for the functioning of the securities markets and the protection of investors in the host Member State where any of the following criteria is fulfilled: (a) the annual value of settlement instructions related to transactions in financial instruments issued by issuers from the host Member State and settled by the CSD represents at least 15 % of the total annual value of all settlement instructions related to transactions in financial instruments issued by issuers from the host Member State and settled by all CSDs established in the Union; (b) the annual value of settlement instructions settled by the CSD for participants and other holders of securities accounts from the host Member State represents at least 15 % of the total annual value of the settlement instructions settled by all CSDs established in the Union, for participants and other holders of securities accounts from the host Member State; (c) the CSD operates a securities settlement system governed by the law of the host Member State and has been notified to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). 2. For the purposes of points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1, the value of a settlement instruction shall be: (a) for a settlement instruction against payment, the value of the corresponding transaction in financial instruments as entered into the securities settlement system; (b) for free-of-payment (FOP) settlement instructions, the aggregated market value of the relevant financial instruments as determined in accordance with Article 7. 3. Where any of the criteria set out in paragraph 1 is fulfilled, the operations of that CSD in a host Member State shall be considered of substantial importance for the functioning of the securities markets and the protection of investors in that host Member State for renewable periods of three calendar years from the 30 April of the calendar year following the fulfilment of any of those criteria.