In August 2008, the value of assets under custody held on behalf of customers registered a 3 percent rise at € 10.9 trillion (compared to € 10.7 trillion from August 2007). Securities held under custody in Clearstream’s international business experienced a rise of 8 percent from € 4.9 to € 5.3 trillion and domestic German securities held under custody decreased by 2 percent from € 5.7 trillion to € 5.6 trillion.
International settlement transactions declined to 1.90 million, 34 percent less than in August 2007 (2.89 million), mainly due to retail-driven international stock exchange transactions, which registered a decline of 61 percent. The decline of international stock exchange settlement transactions in comparison with the same month last year is primarily attributed to the beginning of the U.S. subprime that resulted in high volumes in August 2007. International Over the Counter (OTC) bond transactions continued to grow by 6 percent from 7.59 million to 9.39 million in August 2008. Of all international transactions, 75 percent were OTC transactions and 25 percent were registered as stock exchange transactions.
On the German domestic market, settlement transactions reached 5.65 million, 34 percent less than in August 2007 (8.53 million), also a result of reduced stock exchange retail activity. Of these transactions, 65 percent were stock exchange transactions and 35 percent OTC transactions.
For Global Securities Financing (GSF) services, the monthly average outstandings reached € 393.3 billion. The combined services, which include triparty repo, securities lending and collateral management, collectively experienced a rise of 17 percent over August 2007 (€ 337.8 billion).
In the Investment Funds services, 326,092 transactions were processed, a 46 percent decrease over August 2007 (607,248).
