For the specific services on the Belgian market, please refer to the Market Profile – Belgium.

Please refer to the relevant CBL, CBF OneClearstream, or LuxCSD Customer Handbook for information about processing, reporting and connectivity for asset servicing.

This section covers the following business processes:

• Event announcement and entitlement forecast;
• Decision management;
• Payment management;
• Transaction management;
• Proxy voting services.

Event announcement and entitlement forecast

Event announcements for NBB issued securities are created based on the information received from the asset servicing provider for this market (KBC Bank NV, Brussels).

Clearstream informs customers on an “as and if received” basis of unscheduled securities events occurring on account holdings, such as conversion, repurchase offer, put redemption, consent, exchange offer, tender offer, etc.

Event announcements are generated with both the Clearstream corporate action reference and the Corporate Action Official Reference (COAF) as applied on the market.

For further information on event announcements and entitlement forecast processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook and to Market asset servicing – Belgium.

Decision management

Instructions for predictable events

Customers may instruct Clearstream to carry out options foreseen in the terms and conditions of the underlying type of security. These options include, but are not limited to, bond conversions and exercises of warrants.

Instructions for unpredictable events

Clearstream collects and processes customer instructions for voluntary events, such as conversion, repurchase offer, put redemption, consent, exchange offer, tender offer, etc.

For further information about decision management processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook and to Market asset servicing – Belgium.

Payment management

Clearstream Banking operates an X account (exempt account) in the NBB’s X/N system. Customers that hold NBB-eligible securities through Clearstream Banking and LuxCSD must do so exclusively on behalf of beneficial owners (including themselves, if applicable) that qualify for exemption from Belgian withholding tax. Hence for Belgian taxable securities, cash distributions are made gross.

Clients, that are willing to provide the necessary tax certification and confirm to exclusively hold Belgian securities on behalf of beneficial owners that qualify for exemption from Belgian withholding tax to Clearstream, will be made eligible for trading Belgian bonds deposit with the National Bank of Belgium and could thereafter benefit from withholding tax exemption via segregated X accounts.

Any agent fees charged on coupon payments on foreign securities held in Belgium will be reported to the underlying customers when applicable.

For further information on the payment management processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook and to Market asset servicing – Belgium.

Note: Short-selling of coupons is not allowed in the market. Therefore, if Clearstream is short of entitlement, sale instructions with TD before ex-date will be compensated gross without deducting the withholding tax; that is, at a rate of 100%.

Transaction management

Please refer to Transaction Management in T2S.

Market claims and reverse market claims

For the NBB market rules for market claims and reverse market claims, please refer to NBB Transaction management rules.

Clearstream detects and process the market claims and reverse market claims on against payment and free of payment instructions of its customers as of status matched, as follows: 

Market claims and reverse market claims on CBL customer transactions 

	Internal	Bridge	Domestic
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compensation	Yes	No	Yes

Market claims and reverse market claims on CBF OneClearstream customer transactions

	Intra-CSDa (CBF-CBF, CBF-CBL)	Cross-CSD (CBF – LuxCSD)	Cross-CSD (CBF – T2S counterparty)
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compensation	Yesb	Yesb	Yesc

a. Including Eurex Clearing and LION related trades (subject to specific rules).
b. Market claims and reverse market claims in non-T2S eligible currencies and securities are processed on the corresponding CBF-i or CBL account of the CBF customers.
c. Excluding non-T2S eligible currencies and securities.

Market claims and reverse market claims on LuxCSD customer transactions

	Intra-CSD (LuxCSD - LuxCSD, LuxCSD - CBL)	Cross-CSD (LuxCSD – CBF)	Cross-CSD (LuxCSD – T2S counterparty)
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compensation	Yesa	Yesa	Yesb

a. Market claims and reverse market claims in non-T2S eligible currency/securities are processed on the corresponding CBL accounts of the LuxCSD customers.
b. Excluding non-T2S eligible currencies and securities.

Both market claims instructions, in cash and in securities, are processed via matching settlement instructions generated on behalf of customer accounts, flagged as follows:

	ICP customers MT54x	DCP customers  sese.023/sese.025
Market claim and reverse market claim instruction	22F::SETR//CLAI	Transaction code: CLAI

Detected market claims are reported to customers in the Custody Market Claims report and via MT564 Claim and Reversal Advice. 

Debits/credits resulting from market claims and reverse market claims compensations are reported in the Custody Market Claims report and via MT564 Claim and Reversal Advice. 

The market claims and reverse market claims are visible in Xact Web Portal.

For further information on the processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook.

Transformations

For the NBB market rules for transformations, please refer to NBB Transaction management rules.

Clearstream detects and process the transformations on pending matched against payment and free of payment instructions of its customers, as follows: 

Transformations on CBL customer transactions

	Internal	Bridge	Domestic
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cancellation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Re-instruction	Yes	No	Yes

Transformations on CBF OneClearstream customer transactions

	Intra-CSDa (CBF-CBF, CBF-CBL)	Cross-CSD (CBF – LuxCSD)	Cross-CSD (CBF – T2S counterparty)
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cancellation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Re-instruction	Yesb	Yesb	Yesc

a. Including LION related trades (subject to specific rules).
b. Re-instructions in non-T2S eligible currency/securities are processed on the corresponding CBFi/CBL accounts of the CBF customers.   
c. Re-instructions in non-T2S eligible currency/securities.

Transformations on LuxCSD customer transactions

	Intra-CSD (LuxCSD - LuxCSD, LuxCSD - CBL)	Cross-CSD (LuxCSD – CBF)	Cross-CSD (LuxCSD – T2S counterparty)
Detection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cancellation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Re-instruction	Yesa	Yesa	Yesb

a. Re-instructions in non-T2S eligible currency/securities are processed on the corresponding CBL accounts of the LuxCSD customers.

b. Re-instructions in non-T2S eligible currency/securities.

Both re-instructions, in cash and in securities, are processed via matching settlement instructions generated on behalf of customer accounts, flagged as follows.

	ICP customers MT54x	DCP customers  sese.023/sese.025
Re-instructions in securities	:22F::SETR//as in the underlying instruction	Transaction code: as in the underlying instruction
	:22F::STCO//TRAN	Transaction condition: TRAN
Re-instructions in cash	:22F::SETR//CORP	Transaction code: CORP
	:22F::TTCO//TRAN	Transaction condition: TRAN

Transformations are subject to settlement reporting.  

For further information on the processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook. 

Buyer protection 

For the Belgian market rules for buyer protection, please refer to NBB Transaction management rules. 

Clearstream does not introduce an automated buyer protection infrastructure. Instead buyer protection will be handled bilaterally between the counterparties, that is, outside the CSD environment.

In order to comply with the Corporate Actions standards on manual buyer protection, customers must use the Corporate Actions Joint Working Group (CAJWG) Buyer protection invocation template for corporate actions if the requested option is not the default option, referencing the corporate action, the chosen option(s), the quantity of securities and the underlying transaction in the template. The template must be sent electronically (via fax or email) to the seller.

When provided on the market, the below key buyer protection dates will be included in Clearstream MT564 Corporate Action Notifications:

• Election to counterparty deadline in :98a::ECPD; and
• Guaranteed participation date in :98a::GUPA.

For further information on the processing and reporting, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook. 

Proxy Voting procedures

Proxy voting services are available in Clearstream for this market on a "best efforts" basis. For details about the proxy voting services offered by Clearstream, please refer to the relevant Customer Handbook and, for the market specific practices, please refer to the Market Profile - Belgium.

Transaction management

Please refer to the NBB Transaction management rules.