Euroclear has successfully launched the second phase of its Single Settlement Engine (SSE) last weekend for CRESTCo, the central securities depository (CSD) for Irish equities and UK securities. CREST’s significant transaction volumes are now being processed through the SSE.
The SSE is a major milestone in accomplishing Euroclear’s objective to consolidate five Euroclear group settlement platforms into one. Euroclear France went live on the SSE on 29 May; Euroclear Bank’s SSE launch is expected before the end of the year, preceded by several weeks of client testing.
Pierre Francotte, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear SA/NV, said: “We continue to deliver, in accordance with the planning we had announced, the foundation from which we will deliver more than EUR 300 million in annual savings to the market through platform consolidation and market-practice harmonisation. Within four months, we expect the SSE to be fully launched. The next major milestone in our migration to a single platform will be in 2007 when we initiate the launch of the Euroclear Settlement for Euronext-zone Securities (ESES) solution.”
ESES will process both domestic and cross-border fixed-income and equity trades in the Belgian, Dutch and French markets as if they were a single market. Using the SSE as its foundation, ESES will combine important payment, custody and communications features from Euroclear’s Single Platform and Common Communications Interface that are planned for later introduction, with temporary adaptations of RGV, the real-time settlement platform of Euroclear France. The Belgian and Dutch markets have chosen to move to the SSE via ESES.
Continuing to leverage the work done on the SSE, Euroclear will enter the final phase of consolidating all Euroclear legacy systems on to a single platform serving all Euroclear group markets. Starting with custody-related processing in late 2008, all key components of the Single Platform are scheduled to be completed by 2009.
CRESTCo Limited operates the real-time securities settlement system for Irish, UK, Jersey, Isle of Man, Guernsey and international securities through the CREST system. CRESTCo Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Euroclear SA/NV.
Euroclear is the world’s largest provider of domestic and cross-border settlement and related services for bond, equity and fund transactions. Market owned and market governed, the Euroclear group includes 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. The total value of securities transactions settled by Euroclear is in excess of EUR 350 trillion per annum, while assets held for clients are valued at more than EUR 15 trillion. Euroclear Bank is rated AA+ by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
