Segregation of client assets and related account structures is a topic deemed of high relevance by policymakers at international level (e.g. by IOSCO’s Principles regarding the Custody of Collective Investment Schemes’ Assets), at EU level (e.g. AIFMD, EMIR, CSDR, UCITS V, MiFID/MiFIR) and at national levels.

Yet such regulatory focus in Europe lacks a comprehensive and holistic approach in terms of the nature of obligations, scope of financial instruments and entities and requirements for collateral treatment.

It is against this background that AFME has engaged in a two-stage project:

• to comprehensively analyse existing and proposed regulation that impacts client asset protection, focusing primarily on Europe but with consideration of the broader global context given the nature of the markets in question, and
• to develop, based on the conclusions of this analysis and focusing primarily on securities accounts, principles on segregation of client assets and client account holding structures from a holistic and integrated operational, legal and compliance perspective that simultaneously ensure adequate safety of client assets while minimising operational complexity and cost.