Euroclear says it had a record year in 2006 across all of its businesses. The Brussels-based ICSD ended the year with assets worth Euros 18.2 trillion in custody in Euroclear Bank and the various national CSDs it controls. This was up 16%t on the Euros 15.7 trillion at the end of 2005. Similarly, the value of securities transactions settled during the year climbed by 25% from Euros 361.4 trillion in 2005 to Euros 451.7 trillion in 2006.
The number of netted transactions settled in the Euroclear group increased by 14% to 145 million in 2006 compared with 127 million in 2005, and the combined daily value of collateral provision outstanding in Euroclear Bank and CRESTCo grew by 12% in 2006 to Euros 537.9 billion, compared with EUR 481.9 billion at the end of 2005.
The figures include a contribution from Euroclear Belgium for the first time.
“Euroclear’s platform consolidation and market-practice harmonization programme has involved an unprecedented level of active interaction with clients and other stakeholders,” says Pierre Francotte, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear SA/NV. “This has resulted in a noticeably more client-centric approach to the delivery of services across the Euroclear group, which is evident in our operating highlights. Thus, we can give full meaning to our role as a user-owned, user-governed market infrastructure service provider.”
At Euroclear Bank alone, the value of transactions settled surged 41% to Euros 218.8 trillion from Euros 154.8 trillion in 2005. The value of securities held in custody by Euroclear Bank totalled Euros 8.1 trillion in 2006, a gain of 14% from the Euros 7.1 trillion recorded in 2005. Euroclear claims “more than Euros 46 billion represented net new business won from the other ICSD.” Post-netting, Euroclear Bank settled 34 million transactions, an increase of 26% from the 27 million transactions processed in 2005. Tri-party collateral management deals outstanding at Euroclear Bank rose by 25% to a daily average of Euros 308.7 billion compared with Euros 246.0 billion at the end of 2005.
At the UK CSD CRESTCo, the volume of transactions settled rose by 11% to Euros 144.8 trillion from Euros 130.6 trillion in 2005, while securities held in custody climbed 15% in 2006 to Euros 3.8 trillion from Euros 3.3 trillion in 2005. CRESTCo settled 70 million trades versus 66 million in 2005, or 6% more transactions in 2006 than in 2005. On the collateral management side, CRESTCo processed the equivalent of Euros 229.2 billion in daily Delivery-by-Value (DBV) and money-market instrument repo instructions in 2006 versus Euros 235.9 billion at the end of 2005.
The volume of transactions settled at Euroclear France grew 16% to Euros 84.3 trillion in 2006 from Euros 72.7 trillion in 2005. The 2006 value of securities held was Euros 5.0 trillion, a 14% rise from last year’s Euros 4.4 trillion. Euroclear France settled 34 million transactions in 2006, 10% more than the 31 million processed in 2005.
Transaction settlement figures for Euroclear Nederland were Euros 3.5 trillion, about 6% higher than the Euros 3.3 trillion recorded in 2005. Securities held in Euroclear Nederland increased 8% to Euros 954 billion in 2006 from Euros 881 billion in 2005. Euroclear Nederland processed 3.8 million transactions in 2006, 23% more than the 3.1 million transactions processed the previous year.
In 2006, Euroclear Belgium’s turnover was Euros 323 billion, while securities held were Euros 265 billion. Euroclear Belgium processed 2.7 million transactions in 2006, post-netting.
The number of fund transactions processed by FundSettle, the Euroclear mutual fund processing service that offers centralized order routing, settlement and custody processing, reached a record 6.9 million in 2006. The average number of FundSettle transactions grew 79% in 2006 compared with 2005.
Euroclear says FundSettle now covers more than 33,000 offshore and domestic funds from 21 markets, including clients’ in-house funds, having added more than 3,000 funds in 2006. The number of active FundSettle accounts increased by 30% in 2006, while total client holdings in funds increased by 90% during the year.
Euroclear recently acquired EMXCo, the UK mutual fund order routing service, which became part of the Euroclear group on 1 January 2007.
Euroclear emphasizes that its record performance has enabled it to return more money to users. In 2006 it claims to have returned more than Euros 115 million in tariff-related reductions, rebates and other savings.