On 1 January 2007, the New Global Note (NGN), the new legal and holding structure for international debt securities issued in global bearer form through Clearstream Banking (Luxembourg) and Euroclear Bank, became mandatory for newly issued international debt securities to be considered for eligibility as collateral for Eurosystem monetary policy and intra-day credit operations. It is serviced by Common Service Providers (CSPs) and Common Safekeepers (CSKs). This new structure co-exists with the Classical Global Note (CGN) structure serviced by Common Depositaries.

In September 2006, the European Central Bank announced the decision to accept the Short -Term European Paper (STEP) market as an approved non regulated market for collateral purposes in Eurosystem credit operations. This will become effective as soon as the STEP statistics on yields are published on the ECB's website.

Subsequently, international STEP-labelled securities deposited with the ICSDs will have to be issued in NGN form to meet the ECB's collateral eligibility criteria.

Questions or comments? Contact us via e-mail at NGN@clearstream.com or telephone us on + 352 243 32119.