"...will interest specialists, general readers and fans of detective fiction... grippingly relevant to current economic circumstances" (Financial Times, Monday 7th January 2008)
"virtually the only book to cover this arcane subject comprehensively, it is an essential complement for any financial market’s library." (Financial World, February 2008)
"...a comprehensive and exhaustively researched study.." (Speed, Vol. 2)
“Norman has produced a history of EU clearing and settlement systems” (European Voice, Thursday 14th February 2008)
“...deserves to become compulsory reading for regulators and policy makers everywhere." (Global Custodian, Spring 2008)
The fragmentation and complexity of Europe s settlement structures mean that the overall service provided to the securities industry and its users is far from cost-effective. Peter Norman provides an authoritative account of why this is so, drawing on an impressive array of individual experience and sources, and sets the stage very persuasively for the further rationalisation that the industry needs.
Sir David Walker, Senior Adviser, Morgan Stanley International
Excellently researched and sound in judgment Plumbers and Visionaries offers a fund of lessons to be learnt in the ongoing pursuit of higher efficiency in the European post trading space.
Dr Werner Frey, CEO, European Securities Forum
Peter Norman has written a reliable, fascinating and eminently readable account of where we have come from and where we are today in the unfinished European securities settlement saga. For those interested in the broad area of European financial integration he allows an insight into this highly technical, but from the financial stability angle so crucial topic yet provides at the same time much needed food for thought for the practitioners and policy makers who should be able to learn a lot from his historical approach.
Alexandre Lamfalussy, Former President of the European Monetary Institute, and President of the Committee of Wise Men on the Regulation of European Securities Markets
This book is a must for anybody interested in understanding the importance of post-trading in the financial system and its evolution in Europe. It really brings out the peculiarities of the European marketplace, as well as the personalities of the different actors. Surprising as it may sound, this book on plumbers was great fun for me to read!
Alberto Giovannini, CEO of Unifortune, and Chairman of the Giovannini Group of advisors to the EU
Anyone interested in understanding the extraordinary growth of international capital markets should read Peter Norman s Plumbers and Visionaries and his vivid account of the evolution of the securities custody and settlement systems on which both our markets and our monetary arrangements have come to rely.
Peter R. Fisher, Managing Director of BlackRock and former Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury
Peter Norman has written a fascinating and seminal account about one of the most arcane, yet critical market segments for European financial integration. This lively book shows how complicated it is to make progress; how diverse are the actors and their interests. For students of European economic integration here is an important empirical case to study.
David Wright, Director of Financial Services Policy and Financial Markets in the European Commission
From the Back Cover
Plumbers and Visionaries: Securities Settlement and Europe’s Financial Market is a path-breaking account of the history and future of the securities settlement industry in Europe. Written by experienced journalist and author, Peter Norman, this book takes a look at the less visible, but nevertheless critical, segment of the global capital markets, following the development of securities settlement across Europe’s frontiers. It encompasses the free-wheeling days of the Eurobond market in the 1960s, through the growing integration of the European Union, to the highly regulated and efficient multi-trillion euro business that securities settlement is today.
This book is the story of a financial sector that has grown hugely in importance in the 40 years since Euroclear, now the world’s premier settlement system for domestic and international securities transactions, was created to deal with a settlement crisis that threatened to smother the international securities market in its infancy.
Beginning with the settlement crisis in the Eurobond market, this book describes how Euroclear and later Cedel, its arch-rival, were founded to deal with the problem. It follows the challenges posed by cross-border settlement for a growing range of securities when most financial infrastructures operated only within national frontiers. The book demonstrates how securities settlement became an issue for public policy after the stock market crash of 1987 and how the problems of cross-border settlement moved rapidly up the European policy agenda after the euro’s launch.
More than a mere history, this book engages with the people who created the modern European securities settlement industry and taps into the often entertaining memories of its founding fathers. This book also focuses on the difficulties and challenges of cross-border transactions which have been identified as hampering Europe’s economic growth. It looks at the present state of the industry seeking a way forward so that the securities settlement infrastructure will better serve a single European capital market.
About the Author
Peter Norman is a London-based journalist and writer, specialising in European issues. He began a career in journalism in 1968 as a trainee for Reuters Economic Services in London. He later worked for The Times (of London) and The Wall Street Journal-Europe before joining the Financial Times in 1988 with responsibility for the newspaper’s UK and international economic news coverage. He spent 22 years of his professional life on the European mainland based at various times in Frankfurt, Bonn and Brussels. After three years in Bonn as the FT’s chief correspondent in Germany, he moved in 1998 to Brussels as bureau chief and chief EU correspondent. He has combined book authorship and journalism since returning to the UK in July 2002. Plumbers and Visionaries: Securities Settlement and Europe’s Financial Market is his second work of recent European history.
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