common european objective of creating a truly transparent and integrated european financial market in line with the single market agenda. the eurosystem will continue to play an active role in the payment industry by offering several types of service and infrastructure to the financial market. it has proven that it is capable of managing large - scale facilities and now provides a borderless core infrastructure for real - time settlement in central bank money with target 2. furthermore, a medium - term project for the next generation of collateral management has been launched under the name of “ collateral central bank management ” ( ccbm2 ), the objective of which is to consolidate and enhance the efficiency of the eurosystem ’ s collateral management systems to the benefit of eligible counterparties. currently, there is a public consultation on the draft ccbm2 user requirements under way, in which market participants have been invited to provide their comments by 5 may 2008. let me also elaborate on the new target2 securities ( t2s ) project. the t2s project is the eurosystem ’ s proposal for making cross - border securities settlement transactions in central bank money as secure, efficient and cheap as domestic settlement transactions are today. t2s will build on and benefit from the newly released target2 system thereby combining cash and securities settlements – in real time – within a single european infrastructure. this will be europe ’ s single “ pipeline ” settlement system, a system similar to those that have already been implemented by other economic areas. i firmly believe that t2s will contribute to speeding up market integration and fostering the necessary competition in europe, to the benefit of financial participants and the citizens of europe. the t2s project will act as a driver to remove even more barriers of the kind already identified by the giovannini group, as well as help users to identify the irreducible costs of unresolved barriers in the new efficient borderless settlement environment. this project will also advance the european harmonisation process, creating opportunities for further cost savings and allowing market participants to easily select and choose post - trade partners irrespective of their location within the single market. the impact of t2s on harmonisation is already being felt, building on the valuable work carried out by the csds. the harmonisation process goes far beyond pure settlement activities and will increase the pressure for swift action to harmonise practices, especially in relation to corporate activities, taxes, laws and regulations. the dynamic and second - round effects of t2s will pass through the

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : high - level panel : improving the efficiency and integration of post - trading arrangements in europe speech by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the joint ecb / european commission conference “ the safety and efficiency of post - trading arrangements in europe ”, frankfurt am main, 21 - 22 april 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to open the high level panel on improving the efficiency and integration of post - trading arrangements in europe and to share with you our visions for a more integrated financial post trading market. queen victoria once said : “ change? why do we need change? [ things are quite bad enough as they are ] ”. well, a few years ago the post trading community was facing the question whether to follow queen victoria and not to change the post trading environment. so i am delighted when i look at today ’ s post trading environment to see a dynamic change environment with a lot of activity and initiative. an important question – that we will address in this panel – is how we can further shape and contribute to the future post trading environment. as members of the panel, we have the pleasure of welcoming mr eddy wymeersch, chairman of the european committee of securities regulators ( cesr ), ms pervenche beres, member of the european parliament and chairperson of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the european parliament and mr jeffrey tessler, chief executive officer of clearstream international. i am especially happy to open this panel because the post - trading segment of the financial market plays a particularly important role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of allocating and attracting funds within a globalised financial market. to put this into perspective, the securities trading volumes for the eu stood at approximately €150 trillion in 2006, as compared with €196 trillion in the united states and €72 trillion in japan, and keeping in mind at the same time that the settlement volumes could be as much as three times as high. in the light of these significant and increasing volumes, it is evident that today ’ s challenges are best tackled by involving market participants in the definition of concerted efforts to foster innovative and operative actions to enhance the safeguarding and integration of the currently too fragmented european post - trading market. the eurosystem takes its responsibility and is accountable for acting as a market operator, facilitator and catalyst for new initiatives as part of the