An Analysis Of International Inter-Bank Settlement Problems And Responses

Timely and adequate settlement of international inter-bank payments has always been a major concern for the banking industry. However the 1974 failure of Herstatt Bank, and the disruption which hit the financial markets, ushered in an era of heightened concern about the potential vulnerability of the international settlement systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the encountered settlement problems and attempted solutions. Nowhere are these efforts more apparent then in the European attempt to create a single financial market. One of the more interesting developments in this evolution towards regional and global payment markets has been the push towards real-time settlement systems with collateralisation.