CLS Bank announced today that it has now settled over 117,000 payment instructions with a gross value of over $US 1 trillion in one day for the first time.
CLS says that the new record, due largely to the US public holiday on Monday 17 February, is the level of daily volume and value that it expects to settle as the platform matures during the course of this year. Even on a normal settlement day, CLS Bank is now settling an average of 60,000 forex payment instructions submitted each day by its Settlement Members, with a gross value of approximately $US 600 billion. Volumes continue to grow, faster than expectations, to a cumulative total of over $US 40 trillion settled to date.
Since its launch with 39 Settlement Members in September 2002, CLS Bank has approved another ten Settlement Members. This brings the total number to 49 banks that are now settling live instructions for foreign exchange trades through CLS Bank. CLS Bank says additional Settlement Members in 2003 and the introduction of Settlement Member customers in the bank-to-bank market will continue to expand CLS use in the foreign exchange markets.
“This is another milestone and comes after a significant year of achievement for CLS Bank,” says Joseph De Feo, CEO of CLS Group and President and CEO of CLS Bank International. “We have successfully launched the CLS service with a higher number of shareholders than originally envisaged and have already opened up the CLS service to our Settlement Members’ customers (“third parties”). The volume of instructions settled through CLS Bank is exceeding expectations. It is possible we are already impacting the foreign exchange market observing the high volumes settling through CLS. During 2003 we are determined to build on our achievements to deliver a world class service that provides increasing value to our shareholders and the wider market.”
Suzanne Labarge, Chairman of CLS Group, added: “The market is now seeing CLS Bank demonstrating its value. The volume we have seen today will be replicated on a daily basis later this year and CLS Bank has shown that it is more than capable of handling these volumes. Already a significant proportion of the total daily volume in the global FX market is settled through CLS Bank, and as this increases this will continue to reduce risk and bring value to the wider market, which in these uncertain times will benefit us all.”