ABSTRACT
Notwithstanding the harmonisatory efforts carried out by the European Union (EU) institutions in the field of settlement and clearing of securities, and in the field of the use of securities as collateral (namely through the enactment of the two Directives concerning these disciplines), a series of legal barriers still remain in place and have to be removed for a full liberalisation of the market. Some of these barriers have been highlighted above, and concern, for example, the absence of a common definition of certain key institutions or phases of the settlement procedures. Others concern differences in market practice conventions between member states that hamper cross-border transactions.
