Jun 14 2007 Peter Elstob
Today the European Association of Central Counterparty Clearing Houses, European Central Securities Depositories Association, and Federation of European Securities Exchanges will produce the final draft of their voluntary guidelines for access and interoperability among their members. The A&IO guideline is the second of three elements comprising the clearing and settlement code of conduct, which EACH, ECSDA and FESE presented to Charlie McCreevy, internal market commissioner, on November 7 last year.
The code covers three areas: price transparency (the guidelines for which have already been adopted); access and interoperability among exchanges, clearing houses and CSDs; and service unbundling and accounting separation. The self-regulatory code applies only to cash equities at present, but the commission has served notice that it wishes it to be extended to other asset classes.
All three groups said that feedback to the draft A&IO guidelines — from users, the commission, and the European Parliament — had been positive and they were confident that the June 30 deadline for adoption would be met. On June 15, the final draft of the A&IO guideline will be circulated for comments, which must be submitted by June 19, and the final version circulated the next day.
Werner Frey, chief executive of the European Securities Forum, which represents Europe's largest cross-border banks, said greater efficiency of cross-border clearing and settlement would only come about through user choice and competition among infrastructure providers. Access and interoperability were therefore at the core of the code of conduct.
"Creating the conditions for a truly competitive central counterparty environment at major European trading platforms is a key request from major market users," Frey told Complinet.
