The European trading and post-trading infrastructure is now in a period of consolidation, with technological and regulatory changes supporting the removal of barriers to the cross-border provision of services. The proposed new Investment Services Directive should simplify the regulatory framework and increase the uniformity of securities regulation.
While corporations have always been the engines for economic development, they need to be more proactive in balancing this drive with social equity and environmental protection, partly because they have been the cause of some of the unsustainable conditions, but also because they have access to the resources necessary to address the problems. 19.