Day 1 of PostTrade 360° 2025 in Stockholm was full of Euroclear-featured sessions, undoubtely highlighted by Hanna Vainio, CEO of Euroclear Nordics, who unveiled a bold and transformative strategy for post-trade infrastructure across Sweden and Finland.
Euroclear’s Nordic Vision: Building the Preferred CSD in the Nordic region
But before Hanna took the stage, Bernard Frenay, Euroclear’s CEO for European Markets - and newly elected chairman of the board for Euroclear Sweden - was one of four panellists in the official opening of the 2025 conference in the main congress hall: ”The forces shaping post trade through 2026 and beyond”. The session’s moderator, Göran Fors from SEB, made a point to mention Euroclear’s first external marketing campaign, “The Heart of Europe’s Financial Markets”, as he introduced Bernard.
Next, followed Hanna Vainio’s keynote which emphasized Euroclear’s commitment to becoming the preferred Central Securities Depository (CSD) in the Nordics—modern, resilient, and client-centric.
Key Takeaways from Hanna Vainio’ speech:
Strategic Migration to T2S: Euroclear Sweden will join the ECB’s Target2-Securities (T2S) platform by Q2 2030, aligning with Riksbanken’s T2 project and bypassing interim local solutions to reduce risk, costs and accelerate delivery. A Letter of Intent has already been submitted to the ECB, with final migration plans expected in 2026.
Leveraging Finnish Success: The Finnish market’s successful T2S migration in 2023—Europe’s largest to date—serves as the blueprint. The Nordic transformation will build on this experience, using a shared, scalable, and T2S-compliant platform already in production
Agile Delivery Model: Euroclear plans several client facing platforms before 2030, ensuring a phased rollout of features like T+1 and harmonized messaging standards.
Supporting the SIU Vision: The strategy aligns with the European Savings and Investments Union (SIU), aiming to deepen EU capital markets and enhance competitiveness. Euroclear’s Nordic model—marked by high retail participation and direct investor holdings—is positioned as a benchmark for Europe.
Empowering Issuers and Investors: Euroclear Sweden’s direct holding model and value-added services foster transparency and long-term investment. The reopening of 11 CSD links for dual listings further expands opportunities for issuers and investors.
- Collaborative Transformation: The initiative is a joint effort with partners like Nasdaq, UC, regulators, and clients. It reflects Euroclear’s ethos of “winning together” and its role as a trusted FMI committed to clarity, preparedness, and innovation.
Euroclear’s Nordic strategy is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic leap toward harmonization, scale, and shared purpose. By uniting Sweden and Finland under a common infrastructure, Euroclear is developing a strong Nordic offering and shaping the future of capital markets in the region and reinforcing Europe’s financial resilience.
Other Euroclear Sweden related sessions on PostTrade’s first day were a seminar hosted by Citi, “The future of corporate actions and proxy voting: collaboration and innovation for a more efficient ecosystem”, which featured Mairtin O’Duinnin, Head of Issuer Product Management for Euroclear Sweden, along with three other panellists.
“From our point of view as a CSD, we like to see ourselves as sort of the hub between the issuers on the one side, and the investor community with all their agents and intermediaries on the other side. We try to play our part to make things flow better, whether it is information, interactions, responses, etc. I see it as very positive that we have approximately 400 000 unique foreign investors in Swedish companies, that means around a third of the value of the market is in foreign hands. This is a sign of the openness of the market, said Mairtin O’Duinnin.
Lastly, Sandra Holmqvist, Euroclear Sweden’s Chief Business Officer Financial Institutions, had a discussion with Ola Mjorud, Nordic Custody Country Head at Citi, about “The strengths of the Nordic model – what can Europe learn from our experience?”.
The success of Sweden’s capital market is no accident. A culture of private investment, accessible trading platforms, and a strong pension system have created a vibrant ecosystem.
“No market is perfect,” says Ola Mjorud. “But the Nordics offer a lot of inspiration for Europe.”
Europe’s capital markets face a challenge: vast pools of private savings remain idle in bank accounts, while the continent seeks to boost investment and economic growth. Could the Nordic model offer a blueprint for change?
“In Sweden, I can buy shares on my phone in seconds,” says Sandra Holmqvist. “That kind of accessibility is key to building investor confidence and engagement. Simply put, for the European capital markets to grow as a whole, we need to get more people across Europe into the capital market”.
Bernard Frenay CEO European Markets Euroclear and chairman of Euroclear Sweden's board: Official opening: the forces shaping post trade through 2026 and beyond with Goran Fors, Deputy Head of Investor Services SEB, Laura Bayley, Head Clearing Services SIX Clearing and Samuel Riley, CEO Clearstream Securities Services
Jan Lemeire Director of the Boards Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear Finland, Euroclear on Zooming in on Europe’s CSD industry – what’s up for 2026 together with Anna Kulik Secretary General European Central Securities Depositories (ECSDA), Jennifer Robertson Head of Unit Financial Markets Infrastructure, FISMA, European Commission, Philip Brown CEO Clearstream Banking SA, Niels Hjort Rotendahl CEO Euronext Securities Copenhagen and Maciej Trybuchowski President of the Management Board The Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW)
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