Same Day Cash Service For Asia Pacific Currencies Are Offerd By Clearstream First International Central Securities Depository

Clearstream first international Central Securities Depository to offer same day cash service for leading Asia Pacific currencies Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen and Australian dollar follow Singapore dollar Service helps customers to reduce funding costs Clearstream, the International Central Securities

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Clearstream first international Central Securities Depository to offer same day cash service for leading Asia Pacific currencies Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen and Australian dollar follow Singapore dollar/ Service helps customers to reduce funding costs Clearstream, the International Central Securities Depositary (ICSD) part of Deutsche Brse Group, is the first ICSD to offer same day currency deadlines for leading Asian Pacific currencies: the Singapore dollar (SGD), the Hong Kong dollar (HKD), the Japanese Yen (JPY) and the Australian dollar (AUD). This means customers managing balances in these currencies will benefit from deadlines close to their local market deadlines.

Clearstream has offered a same day currency deadlines in the Singapore Dollar since December 2008. The same day service has been extended to the Hong Kong Dollar on 2 March and will be extended to the Australian Dollar and the Japanese Yen on 23 March 2009.

This move is part of a drive by Clearstream to provide customers with Asia Pacific market settlement solutions as efficient as those offered in US Dollars, Euros and other major currencies and to materially reduce their funding costs. Due to time zone differences, Asia Pacific customers have been historically disadvantaged by the need to pre-fund or finance their settlement operations in advance of their normal cash management activities in AsiaPacific currencies.

Clearstream will complement the enhancements to its currency deadlines with the roll out of a same day settlement service in the Asia Pacific securities markets within the coming year. With the enhancement, Clearstream aims to make available the full range of its ICSD services throughout the Asia Pacific business day. The scope of services benefiting from the new environment include not only settlement itself, but also instruction validation, matching, domestic market instruction handling and feedback, instruction sequencing, provisioning,collateral allocation and substitution and customer reporting. These changes will enable Clearstream to significantly strengthen its commitment to the Asia Pacific markets where the company has been present since 1992.

“Serving Asia and serving our Asian customers are key priorities for Clearstream and we are constantly evaluating ways to strengthen our commitment to the region,” says Philippe Metoudi, a Hong Kong-based Clearstream Board member who is responsible for Clearstream’s Asia, Pacific, Middle East and African business. “Since we opened in Asia in 1992, the region has generated significant growth for Clearstream. With these changes, our aim is to complement our presence in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo with an offering that makes all our services available throughout the local business day”.

The customer deadlines for pre-advices and withdrawal of funds in HKD, JPY and AUD have been considerably improved. For these currencies it was previously 15:00 central European time the day before the transaction. For HKD, it is now 07:00 central European time (CET) of the day of the transaction. The equivalent local Hong Kong time is 14:00 during European winter time and 13:00 during European summer time. For JPY, it is now 4:30 (CET) of the day of the transaction. The equivalent local Japanese time is 12:30 during European winter time and 11:30 during European summer time.

For AUD, it is now 5:00 central European time (CET) of the day of the transaction. The equivalent local Australian time is 15:00 during European winter time and 13:00 during European summer time.

D.C.

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