Payments and Market Infrastructure (SS2021)

The course is intended to endow students with the theory and practice of financial market infrastructures, including the relevant financial market instruments, systems, institutions, message formats, legal and regulatory frameworks. Students will be able to understand how
financial market operations (including those by the central bank) are actually implemented and anchored, and what economic issues arise in this context.

The course covers the basic functioning of key market infrastructures (CSDs, securities settlement systems, CCPs, CLS, etc.), payment systems (RTGS systems, netting systems, retail payment systems, etc.), and messaging formats and networks (ISO20022, SWIFT). Key related economic questions are identified, such as: efficiency, network externalities, competition, standardization, resilience, cases for regulation, etc., relying on the existing academic literature.