Clearstream's Vestima+ Gains New Key Customers Before Launch - New Form Of Market Infrastructure Will Be Launched In October 2004

Clearstream announced today that its innovative new service for the investment funds industry has already signed up key industry players including HSBC Trinkhaus & Burkhardt and the etb (European Transaction Bank) - the outsourced transaction processing service created by Deutsche Bank. Clearstream also announced that the new Vestima+ service will be launched in October 2004 and is targeting the well-known order processing difficulties within the industry and delivers a new form of market infrastructure. Existing customers will be migrated to the new service at the same time.

The Vestima+ service is initially targeting the differing needs of each of Europe’s main domestic markets beginning with France and Germany and the international market centred in Luxembourg and will provide a single solution for multiple fund markets. This flexibility enables customers to select their preferred settlement routes and custody providers. The key evolution is the order-routing platform that delivers high straight-through processing (STP) rates and for the first time, customers can select wherever they wish to settle and whether to use or not Clearstream’s centralized settlement and custody services.

Mr Bernd Sperber, Managing Director, etb stated, ”Clearstream’s Vestima+ service is the only available solution that meets our growing and complex needs and we can see direct bottom-line benefits to our business and estimate cost reduction of up to 80 percent for non-domestic third party funds. We see the benefits accruing from increased STP rates close to 100 percent and a reduction of the multiplicity of systems after Vestima+ replaces Investro.”

Paul Hagen, Managing Partner, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, also stated, “The significant fund order volumes resulting from our insourcing activities led us to investigate fund platform offerings. With the GEOS securities back office system providing the whole range of SWIFT communications, the Vestima+ service proposal best suited our needs. Increased STP rates are key for HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt to realize further efficiency gains and to strengthen the competitive advantages brought by new IT investment and re-engineered back office processes.”

Volker Potthoff, Managing Director Banking and Custody Services at Clearstream added, “Since we announced the launch of Vestima+, the response from the industry has been extremely supportive with both existing and new customers being quick to realize the direct advantages from the new open settlement routes coupled with our STP enhancing order-routing technology. This sector needs to develop much greater level of processing efficiency and Vestima+ delivers an innovative market infrastructure that directly meets the varying needs of the industry.”