Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

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The closing lunch was something of a ritual in the Eurobond market in those days. The closing of a Eurobond issue required the physical handover of the bond certificates by the borrower, once it had confirmation that the lead manager had paid over the issue proceeds. This would usually involve a small ceremony, followed by a gourmet lunch. French tax law precluded Paris as a venue for closings, while stamp taxes ruled out London. In the search for an alternative, one banker approached the head of Morgan Guaranty's securities department in Belgium to see if Morgan might be able to host closings in Brussels. The city possessed the requisite standard of cuisine and had good transport links with major European cities. Thus, in 1965, Morgan Guaranty began to host closings in Brussels.

By 1966, in the face of the paperwork crisis in New York, executives at Morgan Brussels began to consider offering a service whereby it would hold the bonds until maturity and facilitate settlement in-house between buyers' and sellers' accounts at Morgan Guaranty. This would eliminate the costs of transporting bond certificates between different locations and reduce the risk of failed settlements. With the enthusiastic support of then president of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. in New York, John M. Meyer Jr., the service was launched in July 1967. By December 1969, this had evolved into Euroclear.