This status is being granted by the ECB after a thorough assessment against nine user standards to determine the eligibility of a market infrastructure for use in the collateralisation of Eurosystem credit operations.

The key objective of the assessment is to prevent the central banks from bearing inappropriate risks when conducting monetary policy operations and to ensure the same level of safety for the operations of all central banks settled in different ways throughout the Eurozone. With the approval as SSS for use in Eurosystem credit operations, national and supra-national issuers find now all the prerequisites fulfilled to use Luxembourg as an efficient issuance and distribution hub in Euro central bank money.

Pierre Thissen, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors at LuxCSD and Head of Market Infrastructure and Payment Systems at Banque centrale du Luxembourg, commented: "The ECB approval confirms LuxCSD as a safe infrastructure. This strengthens the Luxembourg financial place in its role as efficient issuance and distribution hub in Euro central bank money.

Patrick Georg, General Manager of LuxCSD, commented: "I am proud that all the efforts invested in a state of the art infrastructure have proven to reach the goal of meeting the high standards set by the European Central Bank. This approval is the launch signal for highly rated issuers with whom we have been in discussion over the past months and year. As a result we are expecting the imminent issuance of high value securities through LuxCSD to a large group of national and international investors."