While the regulatory and legal barriers have proved to be thorny issues, I expect that the Commission, as part of its capital markets union (CMU) action plan, will not be dissuaded from its efforts.2  Integration of securities issuance With T2S, the Eurosystem has created the basis for an efficient and effective settlement 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  mechanism for securities in Europe. At the same time, by adopting the CSD Regulation (CSDR), the Commission has contributed to further harmonisation of the CSDs’ regulatory framework. However, to be able to reap the benefits of these efforts, market participants and corporates need to have full and direct access to the entire EU securities market at a low and harmonised cost. A European securities market should offer the possibility of issuing, settling and holding securities in the same way, regardless of where issuers and investors are located. A fully harmonised system of securities issuance could reduce the transaction costs for capital financing, make the European securities market more attractive in the global economy, and allow an effective redistribution of private risk across the EU markets. A sound and uniform panEuropean securities issuance mechanism would also be conducive to the creation of the CMU. Despite efforts to overcome the fragmentation of the securities market by providing a level playing field, there is still too little evidence of competition. The effects of competition have not been felt in terms of an actual geographical widening of services provided by the vast majority of issuers.

More particularly, we anticipate an increase of up to 90% of the total volume expected by the time all participating central securities depositories (CSDs) connect to the platform. The next migration wave will also lead to an increase in the use of links between T2S markets that facilitate cross-border transactions. T2S has significantly contributed to the integration of post-trade processes across all participating markets. This has been achieved by the gradual implementation of the single rulebook, i.e. standards, rules and procedures, in the T2S market. Harmonisation measures necessary for ensuring efficient and safe cross-CSD settlement in T2S are fairly advanced. Monitoring has shown that, by the time they migrate to T2S, market communities are close to achieving full compliance with the T2S standards. Nevertheless, some gaps in compliance remain, for example in the area of corporate actions. These are complex business processes for asset servicing, which involve rules and procedures developed by a range of different actors. The newly established Advisory Group on Market Infrastructure for Securities and Collateral (AMI SeCo) will address these gaps in compliance, among others. This advisory group will also look at ways in which the existing methodology could be used as a blueprint for building a methodology to harmonise collateral management.1 In addition, the T2S harmonisation agenda has identified a number of regulatory and legal barriers to post-trade harmonisation that fall under the regulatory agenda. These relate, among others, to issues such as conflict of law and withholding tax procedures, which are expected to be tackled this year.