Standards — agreed common arrangements governing both communication of messages and business processes — play a central role in the post-trade industry. This paper examines these standards, arguing that they need to be understood not simply as technical mechanisms to lower processing costs...

This paper discusses the causes of the current banking crisis, arguing that it is primarily a crisis of confidence and not of bank assets quality, which is far better than either accounting statements or general media portrayal would have us believe. It then examines alternative public sector...