Publication

What started to be expected by many observers was formally confirmed by Commissioner McCreevy for the European Parliament on 12 July: for the time being, there will be no draft EU directive on clearing and settlement. McCreevy preferred to let the markets and the member states show that they can ease the environment for cross-border clearing and settlement. But what was not expected was the ECB announcement some days before that it is exploring to create a new service to provide efficient settlement of securities transactions in the euro area.