In my speech, I would like to focus on the following two main issues: First, it is clear that EU infrastructures have not yet reached a sufficient level of integration to provide effective support to the single financial market, especially in the fields of securities clearing and settlement, and retail payments.
The present degree of fragmentation needs to be reduced significantly if we are to get closer to our objective of achieving a truly integrated and highly competitive single financial market in Europe. Today, I would like to highlight a number of priorities in this regard. Second, more must be done to ensure the reliable functioning and resilience of market infrastructures.