The introduction of many initiatives to combat risk over the years has led to a more efficient and uniform process and yet one that is by no means uniform across all countries. These initiatives include those set out by the Group of 30, an industry body that looked at issues surrounding the settlement of securities in the late 1980s. The International Securities Services Association (ISSA) later took on board the recommendations that they made, updated them and monitored markets to ascertain the extent of their implementation. Today we see many of the recommendations as standard practice in most, but not all, markets. The markets, of course, have undergone much change since the 1980s, including experiencing many 'disasters' and as a result the ISSA issued more recommendations in 2000 that sought to build on those of G30 and improve the whole settlement environment from the angles of both efficiency and risk. It is useful to look at the G30 and ISSA 2000 Recommendations not least because they are made by representatives from the industry,...