Second, although there is purely national infrastructure in most countries, the main pieces of cross border financial infrastructure are truly global. For example:   CLS operating out of New York processes nearly a million FX transactions in 18 currencies for over 60 members worldwide on a daily basis, with an average daily value of $    4  The SWIFT messaging service based in Belgium services more than 11,000 institutions worldwide, operating in over 200 jurisdictions. In 2015 it processed approximately 6.1bn messages.   Euroclear, based in Belgium, provides services in 51 settlement currencies for more than 2,000 clients in over 90 countries.   5  6  Clearstream, based in Luxembourg, serves 2,500 customers in 110 countries, settling more than 250,000 transactions daily. 7  4  https://www.cls-group.com/Membership/Community/Pages/CLSMembers.aspx https://www.cls-group.com/About/Pages/default.aspx https://www.cls-group.com/MC/Pages/NewsArticle.aspx?nid=187 5 $ 6 https://www.euroclear.com/dam/PDFs/Corporate/Euroclear-Credentials.pdf 7 http://www.clearstream.com/clearstream-en/about-clearstream/who-we-are 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  4    CME Group in Chicago has customers in more than 150 countries and handles 3 billion contracts worth approximately $ quadrillion annually.   8  Eurex Clearing in Germany has more than 180 clearing members in 17 countries, clearing contracts denominated principally in Euro, and Swiss Franc.   9  LCH SwapClear clears more than 95% of the global cleared OTC interest rate swap market, has over 100 clearing members, over half of which are based outside of the EEA, and clears in 18 currencies.

  10  Visa Europe, based in the UK and a subsidiary of Visa Inc, executed all 18.9 billion Visa transactions in Europe in 2015. These peaked at 2,000 transactions per second in the pre-Christmas period. 11  And third, although each of the pipes is distinct and serves a discrete purpose, they operate together to provide a seamless global network of functions that Michael Godfrey could not have imagined. The operations behind a routine financial transaction – issuing corporate debt, adjusting a pension fund portfolio or hedging against the risks of commodity price increases – will typically involve a wide range of financial market infrastructure firms over many jurisdictions (see diagram A). 8  https://www.cmegroup.com/company/files/cme-group-overview.pdf http://www.eurexclearing.com/clearing-en/about-us 10 http://www.swapclear.com/what/clearing-volumes.html 11 https://www.visaeurope.com/enabling-payments/processing 9  5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  5  Diagram 1: Example of an international commodity hedge  Diagram 2: Example of equity issuance  6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  6  These global pipes have proved pretty robust. In the last crisis financial market infrastructure proved resilient, including during the most testing time of Lehman’s collapse. But their use is growing, in part because they increase efficiency and lower cost – and in part because they reduce risk and authorities have mandated market participants to use them. 12  In line with this, post crisis, authorities internationally agreed that there needed to be a corresponding increase in the regulatory expectations of FMIs.