7 EUROPEAN CENTRAL SECURITIES DEPOSITORIES FORM JOINT VENTURE TO DELIVER GREATER SETTLEMENT EFFICIENCY

Posted April 2, 2008

MADRID – Seven European central securities depositories (CSDs) have joined hands to create Link Up Capital Markets S.L., a Madrid-based venture whose goal is to improve efficiency and reduce costs for post-trade processing of cross-border securities transactions in Europe.

The participating CSDs are Clearstream Banking AG Frankfurt, Hellenic Exchanges S.A., Iberclear (Spain), Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (Austria), SIS SegaInterSettle AG, VP Securities Services (Denmark) and VPS (Norway).

The new company, which is subject to approval from European regulatory authorities governing competition, plans to launch its solution in the first half of 2009. The proposed solution will be a way to implement links between the CSDs to achieve a common infrastructure. Link Up Capital "will pave the way towards realizing a single European Capital Market for securities," says Tomas Kindler, who has been designated Managing Director of the new company.