Deutsche Börse Criticizes Demands In ESF Action Plan

Deutsche Börse has rejected the polemics in the current action plan of the European Securities Forum (ESF), which calls for the lifting of restrictions applying to clearing and settlement in Germany. It is common practice for equities transactions to be settled through the respective national central securities depository in the markets of all major European member-states, it said, and is valid in the case of the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy, for example.

It added that the Deutsche Börse Group maintains links to various clearers wherever there is a need for this on the part of customers. Derivatives transactions that come to settlement at Eurex, the world's largest derivatives exchange, for example, are cleared through the national central securities depositories Clearstream and SIS Sega Intersettle. The Eurex OTC markets, Eurex Bonds and Eurex Repo, allow settlement through Euroclear, in addition to Clearstream. Clearstream maintains a total of 39 links to central securities depositories worldwide, more than any other clearing organization.

Deutsche Börse reiterated that the discussion regarding the improvement of efficiency in pan-European securities trading must not be limited to exchanges, clearing and settlement organizations. About 80 percent of the existing inefficiencies are attributable to differences in legal, fiscal and regulatory framework conditions as well as the existence of different currencies and languages.