The first was sponsored by the Federation of European Securities Exchanges and prepared by Oliver Wyman under the title “The liquidity matrix. Addressing the fragmentation in European equity markets”. The second is a publication by the European Central Bank titled “Remaining barriers to integration in securities post-trade services – issues and recommendations”.
“The liquidity matrix” stresses the requirement of EUR 750-800bn annually, contributing to the realisation of the aims of the Savings and Investment Union. This includes a more harmonised and efficient capital markets infrastructure. Their analysis finds there are primarily three ways to do this. Either through consolidating venues (as mostly seen at Euronext), harmonisation and level setting of regulations and standards, or enhanced connectivity (connectivity layers/linking venues). Their conclusion is that the highest impact to reduced fragmentation (and thus maximised impact on real economy and a more attractive capital market) is through harmonisation and level setting of regulations and standards between all venues (even though the other options will contribute as well).
The report on remaining barriers to integration in securities post-trade services by the ECB/Eurosystem departs from previous analyses of barriers to market harmonisation in Europe as the Giovannini Group reports from 2001 and 2003 and the follow-up report by the European Post Trade Forum from 2017. The ECB 2025 report analyses 43 barriers. In line with previous reports, they find that barriers related to tax processing, corporate events processing and legal/regulatory issues will have the greatest impact on post-trade integration (and a harmonised capital market). They conclude that even though efforts like T2S, SCoRE, markets CA standards, CSDR regulation, the coming reduced settlement cycle have reduced the number of barriers identified in previous reports, there is still a long way to go. They stress that: “Key sources of fragmentation remain and continue to impede better integration by market forces in the securities post-trade domain”.
Currently, Capital Market Partners is assisting clients in the Danish and Nordic markets with preparations for the change in settlement cycle from T+2 to T+1 as well as the transition to the Euronext Convergence platform. We support the ambitions to strive for a harmonised European capital market and stand by for continued dialogue with market participants on post-trade topics.
Contact: Partner Søren Rask Nymark, +45 4050 6193, srn@cmp.as
Regulatory status checked: 10 August 2026. Regulation (EU) 2025/2075 requires in-scope transactions in transferable securities executed on EU trading venues
The financial-services advisory firm CMP is appointing Lene Hjortshøj as a new partner and opening an office in Aarhus to
