In the general perception, financial institutions' immense repo and derivatives portfolios are friends and foes alike: friends, because they provide for levels of market liquidity that would be unimaginable without them. Foes, because both types of transactions are somehow regarded as being...

The law governing various aspects of securities holding and disposition was, and still widely is, purely national law, whereas the relevant markets were highly internationalised and securities were transferred and pledged cross-border all the time. Against this background, the EU adopted the...