Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-07T19:15:30.339Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Regulation of Cross-Border Clearing and Settlement in the European Union from a Legitimacy Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2012

Pablo Iglesias-Rodríguez*
Affiliation:
Senior Researcher, Faculty of Law, VU University Amsterdam, and Jean Monnet Global Governance Fellow, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (Florence).
Get access

Abstract

Post-trading activities such as clearing and settlement (C&S) constitute a central element in the integration of European financial markets. However, unlike other areas of financial services, C&S has received little legislative and regulatory attention and, as a result, important barriers to the cross-border provision of C&S services persist in the European Union. In order to remove some of these barriers, the financial industry created, under the auspices of the European Commission, the European Code of Conduct for Clearing and Settlement, a self-regulatory instrument aimed at achieving a smoother provision of cross-border C&S services. This paper uses the concepts of input/output legitimacy to analyse the Code's representative nature and effectiveness. It shows that, first, the Code has not received input from all the relevant constituencies potentially affected by C&S, and second, that there are serious threats to future compliance with the Code related to the competitive pressures of European financial markets. The paper also identifies the proposals to regulate C&S facilities at EU level as well as the new European supervision authorities in the financial field as elements which may highly contribute to the input/output legitimacy of cross-border C&S rules in the EU.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press and the Authors 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)