Peter Norman 
Plumbers and Visionaries 
Securities Settlement and Europe’s Financial Market

Plumbers and Visionaries: Securities Settlement and
Europe’s Financial Market is a path-breaking account of
the history and future of the securities settlement industry in
Europe. Written by experienced journalist and author, Peter Norman,
this book takes a look at the less visible, but nevertheless
critical segment of the global capital markets, following the
development of securities settlement across Europe’s
frontiers. It encompasses the free-wheeling days of the Eurobond
market in the 1960s, through the growing integration of the
European Union, to the highly regulated and efficient
multi-trillion euro business securities settlement it is today.

This book is the story of a financial sector that has grown hugely
in importance in the 40 years since Euroclear, now the
world’s premier settlement system for domestic and
international securities transactions, was created to deal with a
settlement crisis that threatened to smother the international
capital market in its infancy.

Beginning with the settlement crisis in the Eurobond market, this
book describes how Euroclear and later Cedel, its arch-rival, were
founded to deal with the problem. It follows the challenges posed
by cross-border settlement for a growing range of securities when
most financial infrastructures operated only within national
frontiers. The book demonstrates how securities settlement became
an issue for public policy after the stock market crash of 1987 and
how the problems of cross-border settlement moved rapidly up the
European policy agenda after the euro’s launch.

More than a mere history, this book engages with the people who
created the modern European securities settlement industry and taps
into the often entertaining memories of its founding fathers. This
book also focuses on the difficulties and challenges of
cross-border transactions which have been identified as hampering
Europe’s economic growth. It looks at the present state of
the industry seeking a way forward so that the securities
settlement infrastructure will better serve a single European
capital market.

About the author

Peter Norman is a London-based journalist and writer, specialising in European issues. He began a career in journalism in 1968 as a trainee for Reuters Economic Services in London. He later worked for The Times (of London) and The Wall Street Journal-Europe before joining the Financial Times in 1988 with responsibility for the newspaper’s UK and international economic news coverage. He spent 22 years of his professional life on the European mainland based at various times in Frankfurt, Bonn and Brussels. After three years in Bonn as the FT’s chief correspondent in Germany, he moved in 1998 to Brussels as bureau chief and chief EU correspondent. He has combined book authorship and journalism since returning to the UK in July 2002. Plumbers and Visionaries: Securities Settlement and Europe’s Financial Market is his second work of recent European history.