Press

Joint media release by Eurex Clearing and SIS x-clear

SIS x-clear, the clearing house of the Swiss SIS Group, and Eurex Clearing, the clearing house of the international derivatives exchange Eurex, are cooperating in the equities clearing business: the two partners announced on Tuesday that both clearing houses are seeking mutual access to the virt-x exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. This will allow clients to process transactions on Xetra or on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange trading floor via SIS x-clear, and on virt-x via Eurex Clearing.

SIS x-clear AG and Eurex Clearing have requested “transaction feed access” from the respective exchanges for this purpose; the two clearinghouses themselves aim to establish a mutual link in terms of interoperability. The cooperation between Eurex Clearing and SIS x-clear will be based on the Access and Interoperability Guidelines developed by more than 50 organizations within the framework of the European Code of Conduct for equities trading.

The partners are currently working on solutions for mutual clearing access for the project, which was launched back at the end of 2006 after the European Code of Conduct was signed. The next step will see the two central depositories involved in the securities process chain, Clearstream Banking AG and SIS Sega InterSettle AG, examine possibilities for the expansion of their existing services.

Thomas Book, who is responsible for clearing on the Eurex Executive Board, said, “We want to offer our clients clearing access to the relevant markets. The cooperation with SIS x-clear and virt-x is a further step towards achieving this goal for the European markets. We are currently analyzing which other clearing links would make sense.” Book says that links like this between clearing houses reduce the complexity and, as a result, the costs for clients.

Marco Strimer, CEO of SIS x-clear, said, “At as early as the end of 2006, SIS x-clear approached Deutsche Börse and Eurex Clearing in order to achieve interoperability. The partners are now working on common solutions for open and mutual clearing access in line with the principles of equality and reciprocity.” This will give clients the freedom to organize the post trade flow that they deem to be efficient, cost-effective and appropriate from a quality point of view independently.

Eurex Clearing AG, the clearing house of the derivatives exchange Eurex, is also the clearing house for equities trading on Xetra and on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. SIS x-clear is the clearing house for virt-x and SWX Swiss Exchange and is – like Eurex Clearing – a Recognized Overseas Clearing House in the UK.