28 January 2004

ECB: Assessment of accession countries' securities settlement systems

The European Central Bank (ECB) published a report entitled 'Assessment of accession countries’ securities settlement systems against the standards for the use of EU securities settlement systems in Eurosystem credit operations'.

The assessment has revealed that the securities infrastructure in many accession countries may already be deemed relatively adequate. Almost all of the 21 securities settlement systems that have been assessed could be considered eligible for use in Eurosystem credit operations under certain operational conditions.

It should be noted, however, that the securities settlement systems in the accession countries are not all equally advanced. In most countries, the securities clearing and settlement infrastructure has largely been developed over the past decade. Within this time frame, some accession countries have not sufficiently developed their securities infrastructure owing to a lack of resources as well as the low volume of securities traffic, which has hampered the recovery of initial investment costs.

Press release
Report

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