UK book-entry depository Crest is to extend its coverage of international securities to include all European markets by 23 October. The new territories derive from Crest’s participation with SIS of Switzerland in the development of the Settlement Network.
Once coverage is complete, it will be possible to hold in Crest all the securities making up the Eurotop 300 index in Europe and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 5000 indices in the USA. brokers will be able to make and receive deliveries of these securities to or from their home markets and in most cases to or from Switzerland.
Crest says the initiative is an important building block towards providing a full settlement service for virt-x, the joint venture between Tradepoint and the Swiss Exchange, and other pan-European exchanges.
Crest members will not require any changes to their systems in order to hold these additional securities. A new edition of the International Service Description, containing technical information on the additional markets, will be issued during October. The charging structure for the service, which Crest says will be competitive with other international systems, will also be published in October.
"Our objective is to enable our members to settle their pan-European trades through a single interface to Crest, supported by a fully automated custody service," says the company in a statement.
The next development in Crest’s international service will be the introduction of cross-border settlement against payment in the first half of 2001.