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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of integration of securities market infrastructure in Europe.

Given the lack of quantitative and price‐based measures, this paper adopts a rather qualitative approach to evaluating the degree and evolution of integration in the securities market infrastructure within Europe. Future challenges, policy options for regulation and market design are discussed.

Despite its single currency, the euro area securities infrastructure remains highly fragmented due to cross‐border differences in tax regimes, procedures, laws, and vested interests. Cost savings and increased efficiency can be expected from further integration.

This is the only paper which provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the current level of integration of the securities infrastructure in the euro area and its implications for regulation and market policy.