When Europe’s exchanges and clearing houses agreed to a code of conduct aimed at increasing competition in post-trade services, the signatories tripped over one another to welcome the reforms. Pierre Francotte, chief executive of Brussels-based settlement company Euroclear, was among those to express relief that a stringent European directive had been avoided.

“Euroclear strongly supports Commissioner McCreevy’s code of conduct as a means to deliver greater transparency and access for users of European trading, clearing and settlement services more quickly than a directive would have been able to achieve,” he said at the time of the agreement, in November 2006.