A higher level of integration will therefore be beneficial for our economy, enabling investors to find profitable investment opportunities whenever and wherever they arise. It will also enhance competition among financial intermediaries and among financial infrastructures and, as a consequence, reduce the costs of intermediation. However, highly interconnected systems could also be more prone to systemic risks. To avoid those risks, integration initiatives are being undertaken which place a very strong emphasis on the safety and resilience of financial markets and infrastructures. Let me now turn to post-trade harmonisation, the central theme of this conference. The harmonisation of market practices, rules and standards in post-trading is a necessary component of financial integration. Inefficiencies and barriers in clearing and settlement make market access difficult for investors and for issuers. The European securities market cannot be said to be fully integrated if post-trade arrangements are not harmonised, ensuring safety, full competition and the absence of barriers across national markets. This is why both authorities and industry players are making great efforts to achieve posttrade harmonisation. Today, we have been offered a comprehensive overview of what is currently happening in Europe at the post-trade level. On behalf of Commissioner Barnier, Mr Paulis highlighted how, with the crisis, the speed of financial reforms has accelerated. Many participants have underscored the importance of transparency to achieve safer posttrading and to increase the existing level of competition in the industry.

Important progress is also being made at the operational and business levels. The most notable example mentioned by many today is T2S, a project with huge potential for market integration. T2S will enable the participating CSDs to focus on value-added services while the basic settlement service is provided via the single T2S platform. T2S will thereby make it easier for business to move from one CSD to another. The actors that harmonise in T2S have a greater chance of reaping the full benefits of T2S and widening their business. Conversely, the European CSDs that do not harmonise may see the securities issued via their CSD being settled predominantly in another CSD participating in T2S. An area of opportunities mentioned several times by speakers today is collateral management. Some of the regulatory initiatives I mentioned before, aiming to enhance safety in financial markets, are generating greater demand for high-quality collateral. At the same time, the crisis is making this collateral scarcer: there has been a shift from unsecured to secured funding and greater recourse to central bank liquidity. The increased demand for collateral is prompting market participants as well as the Eurosystem to develop innovative ways to make better use of existing collateral, i.e. to make assets more easily available, when and where they are needed. Harmonisation in this area is crucial to facilitate the efficient mobilisation of collateral across Europe. Examples are the auto-collateralisation functionality that will be offered by the T2S platform and the several initiatives underway to establish tri-party settlement interoperability.