The Council adopted a directive amending directives 98/26/EC on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems and 2002/47/EC on financial collateral arrangements as regards linked systems and credit claims (3742/08 REV2), following a first reading agreement with the European Parliament.
The main objective of the amendments is to bring the rules on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement systems as well as on financial collateral arrangements in line with the latest market and regulatory developments and strengthen the tools for managing instability and turmoil in financial markets by:- protecting the increasing number of linkages between systems to ensure the proper functioning of settlement systems;
- establishing a harmonised legal framework for the use of credit claims as collateral in cross-border transactions to increase market liquidity and promote better availability of credit.