Euroclear Bank is to rebate EUR30 million to customers that used its clearing, settlement and custody services this year and is also slashing its tarrifs by EUR24 million in 2004.
The rebate will be allocated to clients on a pro-rata basis, according to fees paid for settlement, custody and securities borrowing services over the past 12 months. Each client will be informed before year-end 2003 of the precise rebate it will receive in early January 2004.
Furthermore, Euroclear Bank says clients will save up to 14% from reductions in safekeeping fees for international securities from January 2004.
In addition, the firm will reduce safekeeping fees by an average of 17% for Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels shares held in Euroclear, and will lower cross-border settlement fees by an average of 50% for equities traded on the two markets as well as on Euronext Paris.
These tariff reductions will come into effect once feeds to Euroclear from the Amsterdam and Brussels markets are implemented in Q1 2004. The firm previously reduced tariffs when it launched its feed from Euronext Paris.
Pierre Francotte, CEO, Euroclear, says: "Euroclear Bank's growing business base and financial strength allow us to pay such a large rebate while making deep cuts in our tariffs.
"At the same time, we continue to develop the means to reduce client costs even further through the creation of a single processing platform for the Euroclear group."
The international depository has confirmed that plans to introduce a single integrated settlement engine for the European markets in 2005 have now been put back a year to 2006 in an effort to address new recommendations for achieving cross-border harmonisation.