Euroclear Belgium announces the launch of “Capitrack”, a service offered to securities issuers that are obliged to adapt to the new Belgian securities dematerialisation law aimed at removing physical securities from the Belgian capital market.
As of 1 January 2008, it will no longer be possible to issue and deliver bearer securities in physical form within Belgium. All outstanding bearer securities will gradually be dematerialised. Capitrack is a service designed specially for issuers, allowing them to easily monitor the dematerialisation process of their issued securities. It gives issuers a complete view, at any time, of the proportion of these securities in various forms (bearer, dematerialised and nominative).
Euroclear Belgium’s first dematerialisation service agreement was signed with the REIT (Sicafi) Retail Estates, a Belgian company investing in shopping premises located on the periphery of cities and along the approach roads to urban centres in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Rudi De Pauw, head of Projects and Business Development at Euroclear Belgium, said: “Before the end of 2007, about 200 exchange-listed companies in Belgium will need to adapt to the new securities issue standards imposed by law. Capitrack offers an efficient and secure solution in compliance with the new dematerialisation regime, building on our expertise in the domain of secu-rities custody.”
Paul Borghgraef, Chairman of Retail Estates, commented: “The new law imposes tight deadlines to implement significant market changes. Euroclear Belgium provides companies with a dedicated service to best face this major challenge. Capitrack is accessible via a secure Internet site. Thanks to this tool, we can easily monitor the structure of the capital, as well as all historical movements for any category of securities.”
Euroclear Belgium organises regular information sessions for issuers on its securities dematerialisation services. The next session will take place in Brussels on 22 May.
Euroclear Belgium, formerly CIK, is the central securities depository (CSD) of Belgium, offering a wide range of back-office services to the financial community and a portfolio of added-value services to issuers. For more information, please visit: www.euroclear.be.
Euroclear is the world's largest provider of domestic and cross-border settlement and related services for bond, equity and fund transactions. User owned and user governed, the Euroclear group comprises Euroclear Bank, based in Brussels, as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland and CRESTCo, the central securities depositories of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and the UK and Ireland, respectively. Euroclear recently acquired EMXCo, the UK’s leading provider of investment-fund order routing. The total value of securities transactions settled by the Euroclear group is in excess of EUR 450 trillion per annum, while assets held for clients are valued at more than EUR 18 trillion. Euroclear Bank is rated AA+ by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.
