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This chapter discusses the EU's efforts to strengthen the European clearing and settlement framework for securities and derivatives transactions. That exercise is pa should promote access and therefore competitrt of the EU's plans to establish an integrated European Capital Markets Union. Important steps have already been undertaken, and more legislation is now under construction, designed to lead to a comprehensive robust market infrastructure in the EU. These include the EU Commission's proposals to update the segregation provisions in the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the proposed regulation dealing with the recovery and resolution of central counterparties. The chapter shows that although the advances made are significant, there is quite a long way to go before a fully integrated and risk-averse environment for clearing and settlement is achieved.

This chapter provides a general introduction to the relevant international standards and their transposition into the regulatory framework for the clearing sector in the European Union. It summarizes the applicable regulations established by the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) of 2012 and related legal instruments. Specifically, the chapter analyses the applicable licensing and governance requirements, requirements pertaining to restricting and managing conflicts of interests, the outsourcing of certain activities and, in particular, the applicable prudential requirements for the management of losses and liquidity shortfalls and relevant conduct-of-business rules. All of these are broadly in line with the CPSS-IOSCO principles for market infrastructures of 2012. The chapter then turns to a closer look at the relevant investor protection rules established by MiFID II and the corresponding Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR). Of particular relevance within the European framework are issues relating to the segregation and portability of client assets.