The European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI) Annual Conference is a landmark event in Brussels that brings together policy-makers, academics and international experts to discuss European capital markets integration policies and global financial reforms. Jointly organised with the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis at the Imperial College, the conference consists of five sessions with keynote speeches and presentations, followed by panel debates. This year's conference will discuss what are the long-term implications for Europe’s financial system of the current policy mix and governance structure.

In the year of the Brexit discussion, the mix of regulatory and monetary policies is crucial to foster integration and to promote the stability of the European Union. Monetary policies are under the threat of becoming increasingly ineffective to support the stability of the financial system and higher inflation expectations. The Capital Markets Union project is still lacking an organic and coherent set of actions to bring down cross-border barriers and create a single market for capital, which could support the effectiveness of monetary policies. Capital markets can also support the ongoing restructuring of the European banking system, which will require significant market funding to offload non-performing exposures.

In the midst of this process, Europe’s capital market infrastructure continues its consolidation process, also thanks to the role of disruptive techonologies, like blockchains. As they promise to bring financial markets into the XXI century with real-time settlement, corporate actions and risk management, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) brings both opportunities and challenges. As a consequence, this structural change for Europe’s capital markets requires a sound and consistent governance, which is currently weak and dominated by national interests. Is Enforcement the ‘weakest link’ for European capital markets?