TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has given EuroclearBank SA/NV one year to apply for a clearing and settlement facility license,exercising powers it received less than two years ago to pull offshore marketinfrastructure providers under Australian regulatory oversight. Thedeclaration, published today (Wednesday), gives the Brussels-basedinternational central securities depository until 26 May 2027 to lodge a formalapplication or risk losing access to a market where it settles transactions inAustralian Government bonds.ASIC Closes the ICSD LoopAfter ClearstreamEuroclear becomes the second of the world'stwo main international central securities depositories to face Australianlicensing requirements, following Clearstream Banking S.A., which secured a CS facility licensein June 2025. The twofirms dominate cross-border settlement for foreign-currency bonds globally, andboth play similar roles in Australia's debt securities market, providingcustody and settlement services for institutional holders of AustralianGovernment paper.To avoiddisrupting market participants while the license application moves through theprocess, ASIC has granted Euroclear a temporary exemption from the licensingrequirement. The firm said it would engage constructively with the regulatorduring the transition, according to ASIC.Thepattern, Clearstream first and Euroclear second, means ASIC will hold formalsupervisory authority over both ICSDs operating in Australia's debt markets bymid-2027, replacing the patchwork of indirect oversight that previously appliedto offshore infrastructure providers.New FMI Powers Get TheirSecond Major WorkoutTheEuroclear declaration is one of the earliest high-profile tests of expandedsupervisory tools ASIC obtained through the Treasury Laws Amendment (FinancialMarket Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024, which received RoyalAssent in September 2024. Thelegislation gave the regulator new powers to oversee clearing andsettlement facilities,benchmark administrators, derivative trade repositories, and otherinfrastructure operators with Australian exposure.ASIC saidthe assessment of Euroclear's Australian activities was conducted inconsultation with the Reserve Bank of Australia, which co-regulates licensed CSfacilities. The twoagencies have separate but complementary responsibilities under the regime,with the central bank focusing on systemic stability and ASIC handlinglicensing and conduct supervision.Thematerial-connection test is the legal hook ASIC uses to bring offshore firmsinside the licensing perimeter. Once the regulator declares the connection, theoffshore provider must seek a domestic license rather than continuing tooperate under foreign authorization alone.Brussels Holds the World'sLargest Settlement PoolEuroclearsits at the center of cross-border bond settlement globally. The group reportedroughly €37.5 trillion in assets under custody at the end of 2024, with morethan 2,000 members and operations across Belgium, Finland, France, theNetherlands, Sweden and the UK. TheAustralian footprint is concentrated in the cross-border leg, where foreignholders of Australian Government bonds and other domestic debt instruments relyon Euroclear's pipes to clear and custody those positions.Clearstream,owned by Deutsche Börse Group, has been building its Australian presence forlonger. Its acquisition of Ausmaq from National Australia Bank, which closed in 2019, gave theLuxembourg-based firm direct administration of managed funds and term depositsfor Australian wrap platforms. The CSfacility license ASIC awarded in mid-2025 placed Clearstream squarely insidethe Australian licensing perimeter.Both ICSDshave also been pushing into tokenization. Clearstream launched a distributed-ledger securitiesplatform with Google Cloud in November 2025, following live bond-issuance trials with theEuropean Central Bank. Euroclearhas run parallel DLT pilots and acquired private-markets platform Goji toextend its alternative-assets offering, signaling that both firms are competingon technology as well as scale.ASIC Tightens Grip AcrossFinancial InfrastructureTheEuroclear move lands in the middle of ASIC's most active enforcement andsupervisory cycle on record. Theregulator secured AU$349.8 million in civilpenalties between July and December 2025, its highest six-monthly total since theagency's founding, and granted 290 new Australian Financial Services licensesin the financial year to June 2025 while cancelling or suspending 215 others.The agencyhas been pushing further into crypto and digital-asset oversight, with the Corporations Amendment Bill 2025 requiring digital-asset exchangesand custodians to obtain AFS licenses. ASIC haspaired that licensing push with a regulatory simplification program that haseliminated more than 9,000 pages of guidance to date.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.