Source: London Stock Exchange
Monte Titoli, the leading European Central Securities Depositary (CSD) and provider of financial settlement services, today announced that it has established a new settlement link with Euroclear (formerly CREST) in the UK and Ireland. The link will allow participants to further harmonise settlement of their cross-border trading activity within Europe.
The initiative follows the recent enhancement of the Swiss link with SIX-SIS to DVP as well as the recent introduction of a similar link with German CSD, Clearstream Banking Frankfurt. In total, Monte Titoli now has links to nine CSDs in Europe and the US, including ICSDs Euroclear Bank and Clearstream Luxembourg. Monte Titoli already provides cross-border settlement and custody services for over 100 banks in these markets.
Kevin Milne, Director of Post-Trade at London Stock Exchange Group, said:
"This is a great step forward for Monte Titoli's cross-border network strategy, and is a direct response to customer demand. We now have nine settlement links connecting major European and US markets, which underlines our strong commitment to operate as a gateway for global settlement and custody for the Italian and international financial community."
Monte Titoli's cross-border settlement strategy takes place alongside the development of the European Central Bank's TARGET2 Securities (T2S) programme, which aims to integrate and harmonise cross-border settlement in Europe. Monte Titoli expects to be the first CSD in Europe to migrate to T2S in the first wave of implementation scheduled for September 2014.