The European Central Bank is not competent to impose the location of clearing houses in the Eurozone. This was established by the EU Court which therefore agrees with the British Government and wrong with the central institution which had taken the decision to require central counterparties to be located in the euro area to ensure greater supervision of the securities settlement systems in euro and of clearing houses.
According to the ruling of the EU General Court, which upheld the British government's appeal, thus annulling the decisions of the central institution, the ECB "does not have the necessary competence to impose such a requirement on central counterparties involved in the clearing of securities financial”.
The case refers to a decision by the ECB dating back to 2001, when the central bank published the Eurosystem's oversight policy framework on the oversight of payment, clearing and settlement systems. In this framework it was established that the clearing houses could not be located outside the Eurozone, because this would have removed them from the area of influence of the ECB.
