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Second Annual Capital Markets without Borders Conference - 27 April 2001 - London

Closing remarks by André Lussi
Chairman, The Edmond Israel Foundation
and President and CEO of Clearstream International

Ladies and gentlemen, what a fascinating day this has been and what a range of ground we've covered - from the rise of the consumer to the future of the euro, from globalisation to the opponents of global capital.

For me, first and foremost, today has strengthened my belief that the Edmond Israel Foundation has an important role to play in stimulating and leading debate within the European capital markets community. When I formally opened the conference this morning, I spoke of the difficult challenges that lie ahead for all of us. I am sure you will agree we have faced up to those challenges during our discussions with great courage and candour. I believe we can leave here with a real sense of achievement.

Certainly, I will take away with me tonight a number of fresh insights from this meeting:

  • I recall the brilliant defense of the euro and the eurozone by Professor Otmar Issing. He was the architect of the Euro, and he brought it to reality.

  • Our first session picked upon this in a stimulating debate, especially the conversation between Professor Issing and Peter Martin.

  • In session 2 we saw a fascinating exercise in searching for commonality between participants with different and strong views.

  • After lunch we were stirred into thought by the timely warning offered by Dr. Noreena Hertz.

  • In session 3 Lord Eatwell did a persuasive job in teasing out from both the participants and the audience the difficult issues involved in regulation.

  • In our final session Dr. Albert Bressand was able to unveil the findings of our market survey, and provided a benchmark against which we are able to measure the other discussions of today.

Enough said. I would like to thank all our sponsors today, Accenture, Capco and EDS. I would also like to thank INSEAD, The Judge Institute of Management Studies, Oxford Analytica and Promethee for their academic support, and finally to thank Time Inc., FT Business and CNBC for their contribution. We have a gala drinks reception arranged with the generous support of EDS straight after the conference and so I don't want to deny you the chance to mix and chat with your fellow delegates. We are among friends and I am sure we can expect plenty of lively conversations over drinks.

So, it only remains to me to offer my sincere thanks to you for joining us here today and to thank our outstanding group of contributors. Our keynote speakers: Professor Otmar Issing and Dr Noreena Hertz; our panel chairmen: Dr David Young, Professor Chan Kim, Lord Eatwell and Dr Albert Bressand; our panellists: Rick Cotton, Peter Martin, Professor David Newbery, Jean-Louis Bravard, Jill Considine, David Hardy, Philip Toomey, Sir Ronald Cohen, Clifford Dammers, Angela Knight, John Langton, José Fombellida, René Karsenti and Professor Ruben Lee; Chris Redman for his skilful summing up. My thanks also to our moderator, David Cowan, for his deft management of the conference proceedings. We are greatly appreciative.

I should also mention the unsung heroes - the numerous men and women who I know have worked so hard for weeks and months to make this conference a success. My special thanks go to those who have handled the logistics for the event. My thanks to each and every one of you.

 
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