The London-based market user group, The European Securities Forum (ESF), and the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) have drawn up and published 17 standards that they believe will lead to the harmonisation and standardisation of pre-settlement matching processes within the European Union.
“The Matching Standards developed in cooperation with ESF are an integral part of our efforts to increase the efficiency of cross-border clearing and settlement in Europe,” says Jol Mrre, Chairman of ECSDA. “Therefore these standards will also be contained in a detailed analysis on inter-CSD links, which we will publish shortly.”
The 17 standards aim to eliminate existing deficiencies caused by currently diverse processes in European securities markets. Their objective is to improve matching rates and increase the certainty over open trade populations and thus increase settlement efficiency and reduce settlement costs.
ECSDA and ESF predict significant benefits for both market users and infrastructure service providers will be derived upon implementation of the standards by the end of 2009.
“Experts from major market users such as ABN Amro, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Nordea and State Street have contributed their expertise and experience to develop these standards,” says Werner Frey, CEO of ESF. “The agreed standards are the result of an excellent co-operation we enjoyed with ECSDA over the last two years.”