Integrating the European Securities Settlement

Abstract

The cross-border securities settlement in Europe is still said to be highly inefficient. One main reason can be seen in technical barriers between the different domestic settlement systems. Beside efforts to implement industry-specific communication standards an integration of the different settlement systems is necessary. The CSD-link model, the hub and spokes model, and the European CSD model aim to integrate European securities settlement. They have in common that they address the problem of interlinkage of national Central Securities Depositories and differ essentially in the way of achieving integration. These models are evaluated from a macro-economic perspective considering transaction costs, risks, and the integration of the cross-border securities settlement process. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2009.