 Good afternoon. I hope that every one of you have been well fed as it is only seeming for The reputation of hospitality of our institution. I will speak a few words about the Market integration as we see today But also as we would like to see it evolve in the next couple of years for over a decade the European Commission, but also the Euro system and Together with the market participants. We have been working towards Transforming what has up to now been a very fragmented Market in the financial area, especially when it comes to infrastructure in Europe and trying to get to a more integrated level This work is still work in progress Requires still more effort however We are so much used to be pessimistic and negative in Europe And let me tell you that despite the request for more efforts for integration One has to admit that the area of market in Infrastructure integration has already achieved a remarkable amount of success if you look at it from a time perspective Therefore, I will briefly Assess where do we stand right now? But then more interestingly, I also want to share with you how we always look forward and what are For the moment within the ECB at least The areas where we will set our eyes on and where we believe we could still make further progress And I will in this respect Mention two topics the first is Security issuance and the second is instant payments settlement In both these areas Digitalization is opening up new opportunities and Therefore also that is a further driver for change We at the ECB at least we stand ready to take action according to our role So following the launch of T2S in summer 2015 And two further migration waves that we have seen during the last year The next big event will be next week When the German market is due to migrate to T2S And I can tell you We are looking at this in a very optimistic way we Anticipate that in a little bit more than one week We will Have an increase of up to 90 percent of the total volume in the euro area expected at that time When all participating central securities depositories will have connected to the platform This next migration wave will also lead to an increase in the use of links Between T2S markets that facilitate cross-border transactions T2S has Significantly contributed to the integration of post-trade processes across all participating markets This has been achieved by the gradual implementation of the single rulebook That is standards rules procedures in the T2S market harmonization measures necessary for ensuring the efficient and safe cross CSD Settlement in T2S are fairly advanced and Monitoring has shown that by the time they migrate to T2S Market communities are close to achieving full compliance with T2S standards If I say close to achieving full compliance It also means that we still have some gaps in the compliance area. For example in the area of corporate actions but these are complex business processes for asset servicing which Involve rules and procedures developed by a range of different actors They newly established advisory group on market infrastructure for securities and collateral so-called AMI SECO Will address these gaps in compliance among other areas This advisory group will also look at ways in which the existing methodology Could be used as a blueprint for building a methodology to also harmonize collateral management in addition the T2S harmonization agenda has identified a number of regulatory and legal barriers To post rate harmonization that fall under the so-called regulatory agenda these relate among other issues to areas like conflict of law and withholding tax procedures The work covers also issues such as collateral mobility cross-border interoperability For example collateral messages workflows cut-off times settlement cycles and so on and so forth We expect these issues to be tackled during the course of this year while the regulatory and legal barriers have proved to be thorny issues I Still expect the commission as We have heard being part of his capital markets union or action plan That it will not be dissuaded to continue to plow forward and to swift implementation In this respect, let me only went mention that I very much welcome the commission's Legislative initiative that has been announced to determine with legal certainty which which national law should apply to security ownership and at the ECB we will certainly Contribute very eagerly to the ongoing public consultation and With a view to strengthen the legal environment for cross-border settlement services And I also welcome the other initiative in the area of withholding tax procedures where we have already contributed as Euro system in order to allow the commission to announce that a code of conduct on withholding tax procedures will be Published during the course of this year with t2s The euro system has created the basis for an efficient and effective settlement mechanism for securities in Europe at the same time by adopting the CSD regulation the commission has contributed to further harmonization of the CSD's regulatory framework However to be able to reap the benefits of these efforts Market participants and Corporates need to have full and direct access to the entire EU securities market at the low and at a harmonized cost Is European securities market should therefore also offer the possibility of issuing settling and holding securities in the same way Regardless where the issuer and the investors are located a fully harmonized system of securities issuance Could reduce the transaction cost for capital financing It could make the European securities market more attractive in the globalized economy and It would allow an effective redistribution of private risk across the European Union markets a sound and uniform pen European securities issuance mechanism would also be conducive to the creation of Capital markets union obviously Despite efforts to overcome the fragmentation of the securities market by providing a level playing field There is still too little evidence of competition The effects of competition have not been felt in terms of an actual geographical widening of services provided by the vast majority of issuers The goal of having a euro area markets Where access is as easy and as efficient as it is to the respective national market has With a few exceptions not yet been met the remaining Fragmentation is often the result of Legacy or national rules this fragmentation is an area That calls for action Therefore, we believe that it may be worse exploring the establishment of a truly European issuance service at least to start with for the supranational depth instruments We could even think about the ECB or the euro system as a whole playing an active role in setting up such an issuance service after all we built on T2S and We could also consider whether and to what extent New technologies such as distributed ledger technology Can be used in that process. I will turn now to the second suggestion That is in the retail payments markets and I have to say that despite the introduction of standardized retail payments instruments and Harmonized processing of rules the retail payment markets infrastructure in Europe remains still fragmented a Part from a few exceptions again Most automated clearing houses still primarily focus on their respective national markets The availability of a safe and efficient market infrastructure That can guarantee the processing of instant payments across Europe is in my opinion also a Pre-requisite for a success of the decided launch of pan-European instant payment solutions Payment service providers should have the choice Either to clear their instant payment through the ACHs or To use a settlement service for instant payments earlier in January the ECB has launched a market consultation on user requirements as well as the expected volumes For a settlement service for instant payments in central bank money the proposed target instant payment settlement short tips Service would offer a series of benefits to the payment service providers first it would guarantee Pan-European reachability Second it would give payment service providers a possibility to use their Credit lines stemming from their collateralized positions within target two Third it would eliminate Credit risk thus leaving the way to faster and efficient settlement Last but not least it would give payment service providers as I have mentioned the choice They could either directly connect to tips in the future or continue to channel Their payment instructions for instant payments through their respective ACH The euro system will take a decision on whether to go ahead with such a service in June let's say at the beginning of summer Tips would commence operation if the decision is a positive one as early as beginning of 2018 Let me conclude now with the migration of the German market to T2S next week the time has come to reap the actual benefits of harmonization in the post trade area in Europe But this does not mean we can slacken our efforts They still in need for further and coordinated action in the harmonization of post trade processes There are also gaps that remain in the financial market integration process when it comes to secure these issuance and There is a need for action To make a full success of instant payment across Europe, especially in the area of settlement The ECB together with market stakeholders that we have always done it in this respect Has to explore how to best take action In these areas Thank you for your attention Thank you, miss