jean - claude trichet : interview with die zeit interview with mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, and die zeit conducted by mr marc brost and mr robert von heusinger, 23 july 2007. * * * die zeit : monsieur le president, fifty years ago the german bundestag created the bundesbank, one of germany's best - known brands in the world. what is its legacy? trichet : monetary stability. independence. credibility. these principles are very favourable for sustained growth and job creation. today it's globally recognized that this is the right way for monetary policy to deliver price stability and, by way of consequence, sustainable growth. die zeit : what do you admire most in the history of the bundesbank? trichet : one of the most impressive episodes has been the open conflict with chancellor konrad adenauer who wanted the bundesbank to decrease interest rates. but the bank refused. it proved to be really independent. die zeit : that was 1956. long ago. trichet : yes, but at the beginning of 2004 shortly after i became president of the ecb, three heads of member states asked publicly to lower rates : the bundeskanzler of germany, gerhard schroder, the president of the french republic, jacques chirac and the prime minister of italy, silvio berlusconi. the ecb demonstrated its independence. we did not comply. die zeit : which personal episode with the bundesbank do you cherish? trichet : for me the whole history of the euro has an important personal touch with german friends in the administration and in the bundesbank. in the time of the preparation of the treaty i worked with many german friends, for example the bundesbank presidents karlotto pohl, helmut schlesinger and hans tietmeyer. one of the most inspiring phases was the wording of the treaty with hans tietmeyer, horst kohler and jurgen stark in particular. it was due to them that the maastricht treaty was well constructed and worked. here you saw the will to unite europe and the influence of this particular friendship between us. die zeit : you mentioned independence as the legacy of the bundesbank. do you have an absolute independence in mind? an independence that forbids even critique from the political side? trichet : it is simpler than that : i refer to article 108 of the maast

, and many other countries. • in general, there has been one central securities depository ( csd ) per country providing custody services. csds were often established by the law and were given a legal monopoly in the local market. the transfer of securities was taking place in the books of the csd and the transfer of cash on the accounts of the central bank. this structure resulted from legal provisions, but also contributed to economic efficiency by allowing scale and network effects. • the csd was generally closely connected with the trading, clearing and settlement system in a vertically integrated structure, usually based on common ownership. services were provided in two layers. the csd provided clearing, settlement, safekeeping and other services to its settlement members. in turn some of these members, also called " custodians ", provided the same services to end - users and offered additional value - added services, such as credit facilities or securities lending services. finally central counterparties ( ccp ) used to limit the provision of netting facilities to derivatives products. • the world that i have just described is no longer the one of today. what are the forces driving the change? how do they affect the market players and the market structure? on these i would like to provide some views. • the main forces that are reshaping the securities industry are : technological progress, deregulation, and globalisation. in the euro area, the euro is an additional, very powerful, force, which, in my opinion, makes the pace of change much faster. as a result, there are several " trends " in the market structure that need to be considered. • a first trend is the increasing blurring of specialisation, i. e. of the borderline between the roles and services of different market players : custodians, clearinghouses and ( i ) csds. all market players are seeking to provide new services and to reach new markets. every player has become a potential competitor to all the others. for instance, csds are establishing links between each other and acting as custodians to one another. custodians are increasingly providing settlement functions. international central securities depositories ( icsds ) are merging with domestic csds and have started providing credit and securities lending facilities. central counterparties are expanding their services to all securities markets. • a second trend is the struggle to be at the centre. the legal monopoly csds have traditionally had is no longer a guarantee that these institutions