ABN AMRO has opened a CLS Centre, providing 24 hour operational support for clients using the bank as their Settlement Member for Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), the groundbreaking risk free settlement system for FX transactions.
The opening of the multi-lingual facility by ABN AMRO’ s Global Transaction Services (GTS) business, follows the start of third party processing by CLS Bank earlier this week. ABN AMRO’ s CLS Centre provides comprehensive operational and client support around the clock, allowing clients to track trade processing, net CLS positions, payment status, exceptions handling, system configuration and user administration.
“The CLS Centre is a unique, dedicated resource,” said John Gibbons, Global Head Cash, Payment & Custody Sales at ABN AMRO GTS, “that provides our clients with continuous support as they migrate from end to end testing to a fully live CLS service.”
“In keeping with our central role in the development of CLS, we have created a facility which is best of class in every respect. It offers comprehensive services, broad linguistic coverage and advanced operational and call centre technology, designed to handle the high volume and value of transactions we anticipate.”
ABN AMRO is a first wave Settlement Member of CLS Bank and was a founding shareholder of the CLS initiative in 1997. The bank is the only Settlement Member to offer free of charge end to end testing facilities for third parties, enabling interested banks and trading communities to preview the multiple benefits of CLS.
To date, twelve financial institutions have signed for third party CLS settlement services via ABN AMRO including Anglo Irish Bank, Bear Stearns and Deutsche Postbank, while a further forty are waiting to undergo testing.