Euroclear UK & Ireland Prospects

Euroclear UK & Ireland will reduce its trade netting tariff as of 1 March 2010, having completed client consultations. Its combined trade netting and settlement fees, which currently represent less than 10% of the cost of a transaction on the

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Euroclear UK & Ireland will reduce its trade netting tariff as of 1 March 2010, having completed client consultations. Its combined trade netting and settlement fees, which currently represent less than 10% of the cost of a transaction on the London Stock Exchange, will decline to less than 5%.

Euroclear UK & Irelands total charges (including settlement) to large-volume trading firms will drop to GBP 0.009 (0.9 pence) per transaction compared with GBP 0.022 (2.2 pence) per transaction.

The most notable change in Euroclear UK & Irelands trade netting tariff is that clients will be charged per netted transaction rather than per gross transaction. The new tariff will apply to Euroclear UK & Irelands trade netting services for the London Stock Exchange, the Irish Stock Exchange and other trading facilities using this service.

As trading volumes increased over the past three years, Euroclear UK & Ireland has reduced its trade netting fee by more than 70%. This latest reduction and tariff restructuring means that the cost to clients for using Euroclear UK & Irelands trade netting service will have declined by 90% since 2006.

As a user-owned, user-governed market infrastructure service provider, Euroclear UK & Ireland does not operate on a profit-maximisation basis. In this respect, modest changes in fee structures across a range of other Euroclear UK & Ireland services will also be implemented on or soon after 1 March.

We thank our clients, the Association for Financial markets in Europe (AFME) and other securities market representatives for participating with us during the consultation process to affirm the trade netting model and tariff structure they prefer, says Yannic Weber, chief executive officer of Euroclear UK & Ireland. Euroclear UK & Ireland will, of course, continue to provide trade netting services, as requested by our clients. The new tariff reductions reinforce our willingness and flexibility to identify new ways to provide value at a reasonable cost for our clients. Given the long-term and constructive business relationships we have with the London Stock Exchange, LCH.Clearnet and SIX x-clear in particular, we have also taken into account the competitive pressures these business partners are currently experiencing.

D.C.

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