The rapidly increasing globalisation of portfolios has rendered the capital accumulation process more efficient but at the same time more vulnerable to disturbances. This trend confronts financial market infrastructures – in particular securities settlement systems – with higher requirements: to process larger cross-border volumes, to settle more time-critical payments and – especially in Europe – to comply with the obvious need for cross-border consolidation.

Private service providers and the oversight authorities are equally challenged. The main concern of the latter is to ensure system stability in an area that is prone to externalities and spill-over risks. There is good reason why pursuant to the current revision of the Swiss National Bank Law not only payment systems but also securities settlement systems shall be made subject to oversight by the National Bank.