On Wednesday 23 August, the European Commission opened a public consultation on how to improve post-trade services for financial transitions, such as clearing, settlement and guarantee management.
Cross-border transactions are still more expensive than national transactions and a more efficient post-trade environment would help cut costs, explains the Commission in a press release.
The consultation will seek the views of stakeholders on the current state of the market, trends related to new technology, the main issues facing suppliers and users of these services and better ways of eliminating obstacles.
In a report published on the same day, the European Post-Trade Forum (EPTF) – a body created by the Commission in 2016 to assess the EU’s post-trade landscape – identified a number of barriers to these services, such as inconsistent application of asset segregation rules, lack of harmonisation in registration and investor identification processes and the complexity of post-trade reporting structures.
The responses to the consultation, which will run until 15 November, will be included in a Commission report expected at the end of the year and will fuel consideration of future examinations of legislation, as announced in the Commission’s action plan on Union of Capital Markets (see EUROPE 11793). The consultation questionnaire can be found at: http://bit.ly/2ipd29o. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)