although the ecb stands ready to provide any assistance that may be required i think, for instance, that a trade repository, acting as an aggregator of several others, could ensure the most suitable data coverage, leaving us the flexibility to shape the data aggregation and analysis in line with our evolving needs. however what is important is ensuring a timely and detailed, complete central view on the market. in fact, the ecb does not need to centralise itself the data gathering, provided it has access to all the information it requires. having talked about potential synergies that could be explored i would as a side remark also like to point to the potential use of a trade repository to establish a new benchmark on secured financing. the discussions on potential improvements of current unsecured or secured rates pointed to the need to move to more transactions based figures. a repo trade repository at first sight looks as a promising candidate for establishing and calculating a new benchmark for repo rates based on actual transactions. so i leave it to today ’ s joint discussion among the representatives of the industry and authorities to debate what could be an optimal solution to achieve the result we need. whether we will need an eu central database as opposed to a complete, fully fledged trade repository as done for other market segments will depend on several factors that you are going to debate in the course of the day. in the case of repo, and contrary to other financial market segments, plenty of relevant data of interest to central banks are already channelled from the trading layer for execution to various categories of intermediaries, oftentimes via ccps, to the payment clearing and settlement systems. one key topic for discussion today is thus how to ensure this set of highly critical but dispersed data can be adjusted, formatted, complemented if necessary, and channelled, to form the much needed central view on the market. it will be indispensable today to identify practical solutions on how information can effectively and efficiently be retrieved and fed to a database, by whom, and to whom, under what governance and technical channels, and what shall be the indispensable confidentiality requirements to ensure an appropriate level of data disclosure taking into account the needs of authorities and different stakeholders. while i say “ practical ” issues, i am aware that they entail sensitive policy discussions and choices to be made that may affect market participants in various ways, not least in terms of costs. in the light of the way ahead that will emerge from the

contribute to it. let me start my discussion by stressing the importance of securities markets and the particular interest of the ecb. securities trading, clearing and settlement are indeed at the core of our financial system and any inefficiencies in these processes are bound to have important negative implications. when trading, clearing and settlement are too costly or complex, financial transactions are discouraged. this in turn would have negative effects on the allocation of capital, risk sharing across agents, and economic growth. on its part, the ecb has a particular interest in integrated securities markets because all central bank credit operations need to be fully collateralised. the functioning of the payment system and the implementation of monetary policy therefore crucially depends on a smooth and efficient working of the securities clearing and settlement infrastructure. unfortunately, reality is quite different and substantial barriers continue to exist to efficient crossborder clearing and settlement, as identified by the group headed by alberto giovannini. the european securities infrastructure today remains highly fragmented with over 30 national exchanges, about 20 national clearing and settlement institutions, and an additional 20 other systems in acceding countries. in this period of transition, we have to cope with a substantial degree of fragmentation of our securities infrastructure, which adversely affects market liquidity, leads to redundant investments in different systems, and requires additional layers of intermediation. compared to, say the us, where the infrastructure has been over time highly consolidated, the costs of securities settlement are greater in europe. although it is very hard to calculate the benefit that we could gain from consolidation and therefore the opportunity cost of the remaining fragmentation, there can be no doubt that it is substantial. i am of the opinion that there are good reasons to believe that integration in the european securities markets will accelerate in the future. the european trading and post - trading infrastructure is now in a period of consolidation, with technological and regulatory changes supporting the removal of barriers to the cross - border provision of services. the proposed new investment services directive should simplify the regulatory framework and increase the uniformity of securities regulation. it will also lead to the effective adoption the single passport concept and contribute to safeguarding issuers and investors ’ interests. this would also be supported by the provisions of the market abuse and prospectuses directives. the adoption of an appropriate set of international accounting standards, as well as the proposed transparency directive, dealing with disclosure requirements of listed companies, should equally enhance investors ’ confidence and uphold the transparency of european equity markets. overall, i also observe that