The assessment of the degree to which the Polish securities settlement system conforms with EU standards can be reduced to the question as to how deeply the specific law provisions are "rooted in reality". In other words, we want to see to what extent the implementation of EU regulations has improved the efficiency of the financial market. The basic criteria include the liquidity of the market and the variety of transaction forms (e.g. repo transactions). Markets are highly liquid when agents are able to transact securities at any given point of time.

New institutional arrangements, such as the creation of the Central Treasury Bill Register within the NBP structures, the merging of the SORBNET settlement system with the SKARBNET system registering the de-materialised T-bills, the introduction, by the NBP, of money settlements and T-bill transactions based on the DVP model I rule - all have brought down the average transaction cost. This has induced market players to conclude more transactions in this particular segment. Not surprisingly, the T-bill market is the fastest-growing segment of the Polish financial market.

Low liquidity of the Treasury bonds market, resulting from time-consuming settlement and registration procedures prevents agents from entering - for example - repo transactions. This is important from NBP's point of view, as a liquid repo market allows the central bank to establish an efficient channel of transmission of short-term interest rate impulses. The illiquidity of the T-bond market is limits the range of collateral which can be applied in central bank operations. At present, the NBP uses T-bonds solely as collateral on lombard loan agreements.