Technology will have a bearing on clearing, as in other areas of the financial markets – but will not transform clearing into something dramatically different to today – or at least not within 10 years, said Fiona van Echelpoel, deputy director in the Market Infrastructure & Payments unit of the European Central Bank (ECB), in a recent interview.
“DLT, tokenization and AI are just a few of the technological advancements that are being looked at in the clearing space. At the ECB, we are also working on harnessing the opportunity of tokenization and DLT to help advance towards a digital Capital Markets Union for the European Union – bringing the market with us in a collaborative approach across public and private stakeholders, including CCPs and others in the field of clearing. This is clearly a journey, with the path and end destination also being part of the project, so interesting years ahead for all of us,” she said.