Clearstream to Open New Branch in Singapore

Expanded services bring real-time settlement throughout Asia-Pacific business day

Clearstream, the international central securities depository (ICSD) within Deutsche Börse Group, is expanding its presence in Asia Pacific by opening a new branch in Singapore by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval by the Luxembourg and Singapore authorities.

The opening of the new branch is one of a number of initiatives and actions designed to improve substantially Clearstream services in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular, to offer customers the opportunity to carry out real-time settlement throughout the Asia-Pacific working day.

Jeffrey Tessler, CEO, Clearstream said: “Asia-Pacific is the engine of growth for the world. Opening a full-fledged office in Singapore will allow Clearstream to present its Asia-Pacific customers with a world of opportunities by making their access to the financial markets easier, more efficient and more secure.”

The new branch will be co-headed by Robert Tabet, previously head of Clearstream’s Dubai office covering the Middle East and Africa who will lead the commercial business, and by Viviane Coppens, previously head of Clearstream’s Settlement and Banking, on the operations side.

All of Clearstream’s products and services, including Global Securities Financing, Investment Funds Services and Issuance and Distribution, will be available to our customers in real-time during the normal trading day in the Asia-Pacific region by November 23.
These changes are a global extension of the new generation processing environment launched by Clearstream in 2008. The latest changes extend Clearstream’s day time settlement processing window by seven hours to enable around-the-clock (21/24 hours) high-quality, real-time settlement and asset servicing capabilities. The scope of services benefiting from the new environment goes far beyond settlement itself. It also encompasses instruction validation, matching, domestic market instruction handling and feedback, instruction sequencing, provisioning, collateral allocation and substitution and customer reporting.

These improved services will help promote interoperability with the region while allowing consolidation and pooling of collateral across and beyond the Asia-Pacific markets. This allows the most efficient collateral usage and opens further routes to liquidity.

Clearstream already offers same day currency deadlines for major Asia Pacific currencies, the Australian Dollar, the Hong Kong Dollar, the Singapore Dollar and the Japanese Yen. The New Zealand dollar will follow suit by the end of the year.

Clearstream has been present in Asia-Pacific since 1991, with an office in Hong Kong. In 2007, Clearstream strengthened its presence in this region by opening offices in Singapore and Tokyo.

Philippe Metoudi, Member of the Executive Board, responsible for Relationship Management for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa said: “Clearstream has listened to its customers’ increasing demand for efficient interoperability to overcome the barriers to timely and effective access to both international and domestic markets. This is a natural progression in our servicing of our Asia-Pacific customer base and supporting their regional cross-border settlement and asset servicing needs.”

Related links
Clearstream-Website (www.clearstream.com)