The Effectiveness of EU post-trading transparency regime in harmonizing markets. Evidence from the sovereign bonds markets

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to determine whether the post-trading transparency regime put into force by the European Union has proven effective in harmonizing the sovereign bonds markets across the European Market. To this purpose we are going to take into consideration sovereign bonds issued by the Italian Government, and limited to this asset class, check if any harmonizing effect has been achieved. Starting from the description of post trading transparency requirements to be complied with by market participants, as set up by the European Regulation (MiFID II and MiFIR Directive as well as the EC delegated regulations connected), we move into the practical implementation of the post trading transparency requirement within the Italian sovereign bonds secondary markets. Finally, we present market data, in order to empirically verify if European markets have undergone any process of harmonization and to what extent. Through the comparison of the Italian sovereign debt instruments’ trading prices before the and after the entry into force of the requirements, we will be able to draw a final conclusion on the effectiveness of the EU post – trading transparency requirements.