Legal Integration of the Markets and Harmonisation of Substantive Law: Clearing and Settlement of Securities and Payments

European capital and financial markets are undergoing a process of rapid integration, strongly accelerated with the complete realisation of the Economic and Monetary Union. The market mechanisms integrate faster than the legislative ones; however, a harmonisation of the rules is as necessary as the harmonisation of the exchange mechanisms and financial operations. This process has been summarised in the expression ‘one market, one currency, one law’.1 As already observed, it is the last and final phase that remains to be achieved.