Pricing of settlement link services and mergers of central securities depositories

This paper tries to contribute to the discussion on the role of securities settlement infrastructures for financial integration in Europe. It presents a model that can explain a well-known stylized fact of securities settlement, the surprisingly high fees charged by central securities depositories (CSDs) for settlement through links between CSDs. As the model turns out to provide a robust explanation for this stylized fact, it is then used to analyzes an important policy question, the welfare effects of mergers of CSDs. JEL Classification: G21, G15, L13central securities depositories, link settlement fees, Securities settlement