Settlement bank Euroclear is looking at the option of setting up a branch or a subsidiary to provide a route between its UK and Irish markets following Brexit, the head of its UK and Irish operation said yesterday.

Banks are looking to break into the last bastion of Europe’s securities market, the settling of trades, to meet growing pressure from regulators for safer trading backed with collateral.

BLUE-CHIP names like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Peugeot are among firms bailing out Europe’s ailing banks in a reversal of the established roles of clients and lenders.

THE secrecy surrounding the identity of bondholders lending to both the state and the banks has been criticised in a new report by an accounting and finance lecturer in the University of Limerick.