Securities Settlement Systems in Poland and the EU

The purpose of this study is to systematise and disseminate knowledge about the processes going on in the capital market, with particular emphasis put on the depository, clearing and settlement functions and the awareness of the significance of those processes for proper functioning of the financial market.

The study presents theoretical knowledge about the main processes taking place in the capital market and in the entities which participate in those processes, primarily taking into account Polish solutions as well as the history and the present condition of the depository, clearing and settlement infrastructure in EU Member States, including Poland. The study also discusses the trends in the functioning of clearing houses, central counterparties and securities depositories across the world and in the European Union over recent years.

The study comes in a particularly interesting period due to the intensity of initiatives observed in recent years aimed at improving the effectiveness, competitiveness and security of the functioning of post-trading infrastructure in the European Union. This mainly results from increased interest in this kind of activity on the part of participants as well as capital market regulators and supervisors. That interest is in turn caused by the attempts to create a common EU financial market and the need to remove the existing barriers in conducting effective cross-border clearing and settlement securities in the EU.

See also