Press releases 2011

- New link to assist harmonisation of cross border trading
- Monte Titoli’s ninth cross-border link in Europe and US
- Delivers single pan-European settlement gateway efficiencies ahead of T2S implementation

Monte Titoli, the leading European Central Securities Depositary (CSD) and provider of financial settlement services, today announced that it has established a new settlement link with Euroclear (formerly CREST) in the UK and Ireland. The link will allow participants to further harmonise settlement of their cross-border trading activity within Europe.

The initiative follows the recent enhancement of the Swiss link with SIX-SIS to DVP as well as the recent introduction of a similar link with German CSD, Clearstream Banking Frankfurt. In total, Monte Titoli now has links to nine CSDs in Europe and the US, including ICSDs Euroclear Bank and Clearstream Luxembourg. Monte Titoli already provides cross-border settlement and custody services for over 100 banks in these markets.

Kevin Milne, Director of Post-Trade at London Stock Exchange Group, said:

“This is a great step forward for Monte Titoli’s cross-border network strategy, and is a direct response to customer demand. We now have nine settlement links connecting major European and US markets, which underlines our strong commitment to operate as a gateway for global settlement and custody for the Italian and international financial community.”

Monte Titoli’s cross-border settlement strategy takes place alongside the development of the European Central Bank’s TARGET2 Securities (T2S) programme, which aims to integrate and harmonise cross-border settlement in Europe. Monte Titoli expects to be the first CSD in Europe to migrate to T2S in the first wave of implementation scheduled for September 2014.

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For further information, please contact:

Tom Gilbert                                       Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222

                                                         newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to editors:

About Monte Titoli S.p.A

Monte Titoli is a leading provider of efficient and secure financial market post-trade services, across pre-settlement, settlement, custody and asset services. Monte Titoli operates a sophisticated platform providing on-exchange and OTC trade matching and confirmation as well as offering a highly efficient European settlement system and custody service for safe keeping across asset classes. Monte Titoli has an extensive international customer base of over 400 banks and brokers, CCPs and trading venues and offers its services to more than 2,000 issuers. Monte Titoli S.p.A is owned by the international diversified exchange business, London Stock Exchange Group.

About London Stock Exchange Group:

London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) sits at the heart of the world’s financial community. The Group operates a broad range of international equity, bond and derivatives markets, including London Stock Exchange; Borsa Italiana; MTS, Europe's leading fixed income market; and Turquoise, offering pan-European and US lit and dark equity trading. Through its markets, the Group offers international business unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets.

The Group is a leading developer of high performance trading platforms and capital markets software and also offers its customers around the world an extensive range of real-time and reference data products and market-leading post-trade services. 

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom with significant operations in Italy and Sri Lanka, the Group employs around 1500 people. Further information on London Stock Exchange Group can be found at www.londonstockexchangegroup.com.