ESES – cost saving through

The launch of the ESES platform for the three CSDs of the Euronext
zone that are part of the Euroclear group (Belgium, France, and The
Netherlands) is the functional equivalent for these markets of what
the Single Platform of Euroclear will provide for all markets in 2011. It
includes the full range of services, such as corporate actions and the
services that T2S will deliver in 2013 on the settlement side, for these
three markets. What this means for our clients
is that they can settle crossborder transactions between
national markets just like domestic transactions, thereby reducing the
direct and indirect costs of settlement and custody of cross-border
transactions. This is of importance even for firms
that have only a small percentage of business in foreign securities, as
it can represent as much as 80% of their processing costs in these
markets. With the new harmonised ESES platform, user firms can move
parts of their international back office into their domestic back office
and save by using one team and one infrastructure to process three
markets in a standardised way. It is now also cheaper and easier to access
the CSDs of Belgium, France and The Netherlands directly. Previously, for
example, a client of the French CSD that was also active in the Belgian
or Dutch market would have had to use an agent bank or an ICSD as
intermediary. Now, it can operate in these markets directly if it so
wishes, while operating from a single location.