The International Securities Market Association (ISMA) is holding a press conference to publish the second in its new series of European repo market surveys, designed to enable participants in Europe’s cross-border repo market to gauge its size.
The repo market is one of the largest financial markets in Europe, and the bi-annual surveys being commissioned by ISMA are seeking to create a more accurate evaluation of its size than previous approximations have tended to achieve.
The analysis was commissioned from the ISMA Centre, the business school for financial markets at the UK’s University of Reading. A questionnaire sent to members of ISMA’s European Repo Council (ERC) in December 2001 canvassed a range of detailed information relating to their repo market activity. The feedback will start to build on the findings of the first survey – conducted in June 2001 – and serve to provide an increasingly accurate range of statistics on the size and composition of the repo market in all major currencies besides the euro. The results will help banks to establish their market shares and gauge their business strategies going forward The findings will be shared with influential market observers, such as the European Central Bank.
The headline results of the survey will be presented by Mr. Richard Comotto, a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the ISMA Centre. Commenting on the results will be ERC Chairman, Mr. Godfried De Vidts of Fortis Bank, Brussels.