Euroclear announced yesterday that it had launched the second phase of its Single Settlement Engine (SSE) at CREST Co, the central securities depository (CSD) for Irish equities and UK securities that it owns. This means CREST transactions are now being processed through the SSE.
The SSE is seen by Euroclear as the means of consolidating the five settlement platforms it owns into one. Euroclear France went live on the SSE on 29 May, with CREST following yesterday. Euroclear Bank’s own SSE launch is expected before the end of the year, but will be preceded by several weeks of client testing.
“We continue to deliver, in accordance with the planning we had announced, the foundation from which we will deliver more than Euros 300 million in annual savings to the market through platform consolidation and market-practice harmonisation,” boasts Pierre Francotte, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear SA/NV. “Within four months, we expect the SSE to be fully launched. The next major milestone in our migration to a single platform will be in2007 when we initiate the launch of the Euroclear Settlement for Euronext-zone Securities (ESES) solution.
“Euroclear says ESES will process both domestic and cross-border fixed-income and equity trades in the Belgian, Dutch and French markets as if they were a single market. “Using the SSE as its foundation, ESES will combine important payment, custody and communications features from Euroclear’s Single Platform and Common Communications Interface that are planned for later introduction, with temporary adaptations of RGV, the real-time settlement platform of Euroclear France,” says Euroclear in a statement. “The Belgian and Dutch markets have chosen to move to the SSE via ESES. Continuing to leverage the work done on the SSE, Euroclear will enter the final phase of consolidating all Euroclear legacy systems on to a single platform serving all Euroclear group markets. Starting with custody-related processing in late 2008, all key components of the Single Platform are scheduled to be completed by 2009.”