CLEARSTREAM UNITS BACK TARGET2-SECURITIES SETTLEMENT SERVICE

Posted June 2, 2009

FRANKFURT -- Clearstream Banking Frankfurt (CBF), the central securities depository (CSD) for the German domestic market, and Clearstream Banking Luxembourg, the CSD for Luxembourg, have signed on to TARGET2-Securities (T2S), the new European securities settlement service of the European Central Bank (ECB).

The Clearstream units have formalized their commitment to T2S, and to development, migration and operation of the new system for securities settlement.

“Clearstream’s signing is yet another illustration of our active support to T2S,” says Katja Rosenkranz, member of both the executive management of Clearstream International and the executive committee of Clearstream Banking Frankfurt. “From the beginning, Clearstream has played a major and constructive role in the Eurosystem’s project to establish the T2S platform. Clearstream will continue to support the objectives of reducing the complexity of securities settlement and of promoting the integration of Europe’s financial markets.”

Clearstream is also one of the founding partners of Link Up Markets, a joint venture between eight European CSDs (Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Spain, Switzerland) to lower the post-trade costs of cross-border securities trading. Link Up Markets went live in April 2009. Acting as a facilitator to T2S, Link Up Markets will prepare both the CSDs and the market participants for T2S. Once T2S is implemented, Link Up Markets will ensure the necessary CSD interaction for asset servicing and other services requested by CSD customers which are not provided by T2S.