Euroclear Finland, the Finnish Central Securities Depository (CSD), is replacing its entire securities processing infrastructure progressively, in three releases.
As of 2 February 2015, the first release of the new CSD system named ‘Infinity’ was successfully launched. Infinity brings Finnish market one step closer to TARGET2-Securities (T2S).
Infinity’s first release replaces the previous fixed income system, known as Ramses. The second release scheduled for May 2016 will replace the current equity transaction processing systems – HEXClear – as well as the Central register. The third release will connect the Finnish market to T2S in the scheduled migration of February 2017.
Yannic Weber, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear Finland and Euroclear Sweden, remarks: “Euroclear is making a significant multi-year investment to substantially improve the post-trade infrastructure in the Finnish market. Upgrading the core CSD systems brings us closer to readiness for T2S. This remarkable market change has been carried out in very close co-operation with our participants. Our continuing objective is to offer better services and flexibility to accommodate the rapidly changing needs of all types of clients.”
“Implementing the Infinity system for the fixed income market has been a tremendous effort for the whole market. Close cooperation and coordination between Euroclear Finland and the market participants has made this transition possible. This is an important milestone on the Finnish market’s roadmap to T2S, and at the same time aligns the Finnish fixed income market with the new European harmonisation standards”, says Mats Råstedt, the Chairman of Finnish Market Advisory Committee.
Hanna Vainio, Deputy CEO of Euroclear Finland and Infinity Programme sponsor, says: “We are very pleased that the launch has been such a success. Going live took us less than two years which is a major achievement. Infinity itself is a major upgrade that enhances our CSD service offering while supporting the latest European harmonisation standards. These new features will allow clients to streamline their back-office operations which will significantly ease their pan-European post-trade processing. I’d like to thank those in the market as well as our staff for their efforts in this launch. Furthermore, it is a tribute that Euroclear Finland is the first European CSD to embrace the ISO 20022 message standards for corporate action and settlement activity.”