The European Commission's proposal for a Central Securities Depositories regulation (CSDR) may attract less attention than other initiatives in the legislative pipeline, but it is an important part of the post-crisis reform jigsaw. The initial text of CSDR, which the commission put forward in March and which is being negotiated among member states and in the European Parliament, would set up a common European regulatory framework for CSDs, the organisations that settle securities transactions, with the aim of bringing more safety and efficiency to securities settlement in Europe.
The regulation also seeks to create a genuine single marketplace for Europe's 30 or so national CSDs (which tend to monopolize domestic markets, leading to a fragmentation of liquidity), shorten settlement periods in Europe, and introduce tough 'settlement discipline' to minimize settlement 'fails'.
Speaking at the recent annual meeting of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), Anita Wieja,
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