News Release
Practical Issues Arising from the Introduction of the Euro December 1998
14 December 1998
The introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 is now just 12 business days away. The Bank is today publishing the final issue in its series of quarterly practical guides to the euro before this truly historic event.
John Townend, who is the Bank's Director for Europe and in charge of the Bank's work helping the City of London to prepare for the euro, said today :
"This publication marks the culmination of the Bank's three-year exercise to help prepare the City of London for the euro's launch. Even though the UK is not joining the single currency at the outset, the euro will still be widely used across the City's financial markets. In recognition of this, market firms in London - not just British but the major continental European, American and other firms too - have co-operated with the Bank in identifying the practical issues raised by the introduction of the euro and helping to solve them. The Bank has communicated the result through its Practical Issues series. This has become an authoritative and comprehensive source of detailed information for all those preparing for the euro, not just in London but across Europe and beyond, reflecting the unrivalled depth and breadth of market practitioner expertise in London.
The Bank is pleased to be able to contribute in this way to the success of the euro and, through the development of London's financial markets, to help the euro become a widely-used trading and investment currency."
The new edition of Practical Issues focuses on the conversion weekend (Chapter 1 ), explaining the work which market firms and those responsible for the infrastructure need to complete, a timetable for the weekend, the monitoring of progress over the weekend, and the role of the authorities. The Bank expects the weekend to be successful, given the amount of preparation and recent testing and trialling, but it will be staffed during the weekend to assist if necessary, where it is able.
Chapter 2 covers the euro markets after the conversion weekend. It describes the changeover to the euro in the money and foreign exchange, bond, equity, derivatives and insurance markets, after a brief section on monetary policy in the euro area. Chapter 3 describes the financial infrastructure for the euro markets, covering payment and securities settlement systems, payment conventions, business days, financial information, and finally legal, accounting and tax issues.
Notes for editors
The Bank's Practical Issues guide was first published in Spring 1996. The December 1998 edition is the 10th in the series.
Practical Issues has a circulation of 42,000, of which at least 6,000 go directly overseas. It is also available on the internet at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/euro/piq.htm. .
The Bank plans to continue publishing Practical Issues in a different form and rather less frequently in 1999.
