operating costs and to better coordinate the prices of the different integrated services ( e. g. trading, clearing and settlement ), they may reduce competition when they are misused, for example, to favour a central counterparty in the silo over its competitors outside of the silo. as the eurosystem explained in its policy statement of september 2001, the disadvantages of vertical silos “ can be overcome provided that customers can choose between systems along the value chain [ … ]. it is therefore crucial that access to essential facilities, whether vertically integrated or not, should not be unfairly impeded. ” d ) growing need for adequate infrastructure in the field of credit derivatives volume growth in derivatives – especially otc derivatives – outpaces the cash markets, spurred on by increased interest in hedge funds and the ongoing innovation in the types of contract offered. while interest rates contracts remain the key hedge instrument ( 187 tri usd outstanding ), credit default contracts ( 6. 3 tri usd outstanding ) are growing at approximately 90 % per year, now reaching 10, 000 trades per day. volume growth is expected to continue over the coming years, causing some concern among operations managers on the otc market, given the lack of straight - through - processing and hence capacity to manage the volumes. this rapid multidimensional growth ( i. e. in terms of products, volumes, market participants and secondary markets ) calls for an enhancement of the post - trading infrastructure that may support more careful risk control by the various participants. as mentioned by governor kroszner, enhancing the post - trading infrastructure does not automatically mean to introduce telles quelles the same techniques that ccps use in exchanged - traded derivatives but rather to identify the solutions which are equally effective and take into account the different features of otc markets. all these developments refer to the market structure that surrounds central counterparties and are highly relevant for the interests of central banks in the fields of financial stability and financial integration. as central banks, we believe that the market structure should be market driven as long as market failures are not observed. significant market failures however must be identified and in many cases require appropriate public intervention. this brings me to my last point. what is the role of public authorities and, in particular, central banks? market forces need a sound legal, regulatory and oversight basis to work efficiently. in the euro area with its 12 countries, and in the european union with its 25 countries, the creation of such a sound basis requires first

and foremost a certain degree of harmonisation of public principles and standards across countries. efforts in this direction are ongoing and the eurosystem provides active support. here i should mention the joint work by the european system of central banks and the commission of european securities regulators towards establishing standards for securities clearing and settlement in the european union. as indicated in the ecb policy statement of 2001, standards are to be carefully set and then implemented by public authorities with a clear interest and expertise in the respective field. it appears evident that the eurosystem, for example, should be involved in the oversight of any major infrastructure for euro - denominated assets with a view to being able to properly address serious threatens to financial stability. a paper, authored by a professor at the woodrow wilson school at princeton university in 1990, addressing the performance of the derivatives clearing and settlement systems during the 1987 stock market break, concluded, inter alia, that “ the federal reserve played a vital job in protecting the integrity of the clearing and settlement systems. ” the name of that professor is ben bernanke. finally, it is important that cross - fertilisation of experiences and expertise of market participants, academics and public authorities in this field continues and, as i said before, this conference has certainly contributed in this respect. with this, i thank you very much for your attention, close the conference and wish you a pleasant journey home.