BFW digitaal 2021/07

Belgium hosts a number of significant financial market infrastructures, custodians and critical service providers, some of which also have a systemic relevance internationally. This article aims at providing an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business activity of the Belgian institutions that are relevant for the international post-trade sector: the international central securities depository Euroclear Bank, the global custodian BNY Mellon SA/NV and the financial messaging services provider SWIFT. We compare among others the evolution of the number and value of transactions and the assets under custody in 2020 with the pre-pandemic year 2019 to identify what was the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and whether this was temporary.

This article is based on the intervention (in the form of an interview) of Jean-Pierre di Bartolomeo, President of the Executive Committee of the SOWALFIN Group, during the Belgian Financial Forum webinar on enterprise financing (June the 8th, 2021).