Clearstream Sees Strong Growth In February

Strong growth continued in February for all of Clearstream's main business areas with assets under custody and Global Securities Financing Services reaching record levels.

In February the number of monthly international transactions processed rose 29 percent at 2.28 million (February 2005: 1.76 million). Of these transactions, 69 percent were Over the Counter (OTC) transactions and 31 percent were registered as stock exchange transactions. Domestic settlement transactions in Germany increased 25 percent reaching 3.43 million compared to 2.74 million for the same period last year. Of these transaction 70 percent were stock exchange transactions and 30 percent OTC transactions.

The value of assets held under custody on behalf of customers rose to a record € 9.1 trillion, a 17 percent rise from February 2005 (€ 7.8 trillion). Securities held under custody in Clearstream's international business experienced a rise of 19 percent from € 3.4 trillion to € 4.1 trillion. On the domestic German business, securities held under custody rose by 16 percent from € 4.3 trillion to € 5.0 trillion.

For the Global Securities Financing services monthly average outstandings reached a new record high at € 220 billion. The combined services, which include tripartite repo, collateral management and securities lending, collectively experienced a rise of 22 percent from the same month last year (February 2005: € 180 billion).

Clearstream Banking's investment funds services continued to experience very strong growth with 321,179 transactions processed, 81 percent more than in February 2005 (177,818). Also in February, Vestima+, Clearstream automated order routing system for investment funds entered the German market when DWS, Germany's leading investment fund company became a Vestima+ customer.