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In order to be eligible as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations, marketable assets must comply with the eligibility criteria.
Eligibility criteria | Marketable assets |
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Type of asset | ECB debt certificates Other marketable debt instruments: e.g. Central government debt instruments Debt instruments issued by central banks Local and regional government debt instruments Supranational debt instruments Covered bank bonds Credit institutions debt instruments Debt instruments issued by corporate and other issuers Asset-backed securities |
Credit standards | The asset must meet high credit standards. The high credit standards are assessed using Eurosystem credit assessment framework (ECAF) rules for marketable assets. |
Place of issue | EEA |
Settlement / handling procedures |
Place of settlement: euro area Instruments must be centrally deposited in book-entry form with central banks or an SSS fulfilling the ECB’s minimum standards. |
Type of issuer / debtor / guarantors | Central banks Public sector Private sector International and supranational institutions |
Place of establishment of the issuer / guarantor | Issuer: EEA or non-EEA G10 countries Guarantor: EEA |
Acceptable markets | Regulated markets Non-regulated markets accepted by the ECB |
Currency | Euro |
Cross-border use | Yes |
For details, see the latest version of
Prior to the publication on the ECB website in the list of eligible marketable assets, national central banks (NCBs) proactively assess the eligibility of the marketable assets. The NCB of the country where the asset is admitted to trading on a regulated market or traded on a non-regulated market is responsible for the assessment of the eligibility of the marketable asset.
The eligibility assessment process only begins once the asset is issued and all the necessary documentation mentioned below is available to the respective NCB. Both NCBs and ECB do not confirm the eligibility of an asset prior to its issuance.
Once the assessment procedure is completed, the marketable asset will be included in the list of eligible marketable assets provided it complies with the ECB’s eligibility criteria.
In case a marketable asset does not appear on the list of eligible marketable assets, but you believe it should be there, please contact the national central bank of the country in which the asset is admitted to trading on a regulated market or traded on an acceptable non-regulated market. In this case, the following information could be provided to the responsible NCB in order to facilitate the assessment procedure:
(1) The NGN criterion only applies to international debt instruments in global bearer which are issued through the ICSD’s with XS ISIN codes. The NGN requirement does not pertain to domestic securities issued through domestic CSD’s or individual bearer or global registered international securities.
One eligibility criterion for marketable assets is that the debt instrument must be admitted to trading on a regulated market as defined in the Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments, or traded on certain non-regulated markets specified by the ECB.
The European Commission publishes a list of all regulated markets in the Official Journal of the European Union at least once a year. In addition, the list of regulated markets is also made available on its website.
For details, see European Commission > Internal Market > Securities & Investment > Investment services and regulated markets (MiFID)
The assessment of non-regulated markets is made by the Eurosystem and is based on three principles: safety, transparency, and accessibility.
The three principles are defined by the Eurosystem exclusively in terms of the performance of the Eurosystem’s collateral management function. The selection process is not aimed at assessing the intrinsic quality of the various markets.
Country | Name of non-regulated market accepted by the ECB | Code for the List of eligible marketable assets |
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EU | STEP market | RMEU01 |
Belgium | The OTC market for Belgian Treasury Bills (BTB) | RMBE05 |
The OTC market for Belgian commercial papers | RMBE06 | |
Germany | The unofficial market (“Freiverkehr”) of a German exchange | RMDE11 |
The MTS Deutschland market for Bubills | RMDE12 | |
France | Government securities (Bons du Trésor: BTF/BTAN) markets | RMFR03 |
French commercial paper (Billets de Trésorerie) market | RMFR04 | |
French Medium-Term Notes (BMTN) market | RMFR05 | |
Italy | EuroTLX | RMIT08 |
SSO Bondvision | RMIT09 | |
Luxembourg | EuroMTF | RMLU02 |
Netherlands | The OTC money market for Dutch Treasury Certificates (DTC) | RMNL04 |
Austria | Third market (“Dritter Markt”) | RMAT03 |
Slovenia | MTS Slovenia | |
Finland | The money market for treasury bills (Finnish Treasury Bill Programme) | RMFI04 |
MTS Finland | RMFI05 | |
United Kingdom | OTC market for Bank of England Euro Bills | RMGB06 |