Clearstream Launches New Borrowing And Lending Program "BAMBL" - Higher Efficiency For Cross-Border Transactions - Eurex Clearing Will Become Automatic Borrower In Euroclear Settlement System

Clearstream has launched a new borrowing and lending program that puts German federal securities at the disposal of market participants without a lending fee from late in the afternoon until early in the morning. The program, called BAMBL (Bond Advanced Management for Borrowing and Lending ), is the first building block in a comprehensive series of services that the Deutsche Börse Group is developing to improve the settlement of cross-border transactions. As an additional element, Eurex Clearing, the Group's clearing organization, will function when required as an automatic borrower for Eurex Bonds and Eurex Repo trades in the Euroclear Settlement system as of the 3rd quarter 2003.

With both these measures, the Deutsche Börse Group is significantly increasing the settlement ratio for cross-border transactions during the Night-Time Processing cycle and making an important contribution to the improvement of the interoperability of settlement systems. Moreover, these steps will further enable strong growth in trading volumes on the electronic OTC markets of Eurex Bonds and Eurex Repo.

One of the benefits of the BAMBL program is that no lending fee will be charged provided that the borrowed securities are returned no later than by the end of the first daytime processing cycle of the next day. This does not pose any problem for cross-border transactions as information about deliveries of securities by international counterparties is usually available early in the morning. Intraday lending fees are not payable unless the borrowed securities are not returned after the first daytime processing cycle. If the borrowed securities are not returned by 2.00 p.m. CET, the standard lending rate is payable.