At the workshop ran by UniCredit GSS in London the economic situation was discussed, with a general overview and then a country specific analysis. There was also a presentation on the regional regulatory environment.
Several uniform themes were noted in the different country presentations. The GSS lobbying effort is very focused in all locations and there are many common initiatives across our franchise. On the corporate action front, we are promoting centralised information sources based around the different CSDs or Stock Exchanges. We are working with the authorities to seek to simplify the different tax returns required and promote tax deduction at DTA rates at source.
Issues raised at the workshop included the status of T2S in the participating countries, the increasing burden of AML regulations with some countries moving former low risk countries to riskier status and the different structures between the government bond and equity markets.
Developments across the region were discussed. Following EMIR, we are seeing the launch or restructuring of several CCPs. On the CSD front, partly driven by T2S, there are several major IT developments. Moreover, there are encouraging moves to improve the different settlement regimes, with a focus on a RTGS cash leg and curtailment of some of process gaps between movement of stock and cash in non DVP markets.
The different presentations made can be found on our web site on http://gss.unicreditgroup.eu/about-us/news/see-workshop-london-handouts
Impact on investors: For information purposes only.