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Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 16 No. 1 2007

Raising rival's costs in the securities settlement industry

Cornelia Holthausen; Jens Tapking

European Central Bank

open access

Abstract

The competition between a central securities depository (CSD) and a custodian bank is analyzed in a Stackelberg model. Investor banks decide whether to use the services of the CSD or of the custodian bank, depending on the prices and their preferences for their inhomogeneous services. Since the custodian bank uses services provided by the CSD as input, the CSD can raise its rival's costs. The CSD's equilibrium market share is higher than socially optimal, unless the CSD is not allowed to charge negative prices. This result has important policy implications that are related to a discussion currently taking place in the securities settlement industry.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfi.2006.08.001
Volume
16
Issue
1
Pages
91-116
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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