Cyprus Stock Exchange to join Link Up Markets in Q4 2009

The Cyprus Stock Exchange will join Link Up Markets – a joint venture between 8 European Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) representing 50% of European securities transactions in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Link Up Markets, which will launch its infrastructure on March 30, 2009 as planned will facilitate the interoperability between participating CSDs to improve efficiency and reduce costs of cross-border securities processing.
As of this date, participating CSDs will start connecting to the infrastructure in three steps: Connectivity of Clearstream Banking Frankfurt (Germany), OeKB (Austria), SIX SIS (Switzerland) and VP (Denmark) will start on 30th March. Connectivity of Hellenic Exchanges (Greece) and Iberclear (Spain) will follow in June. Connectivity of Cyprus Stock Exchange (Cyprus) and VPS (Norway) will take place in the 4th quarter 2009.
Link Up Markets will absorb message variations between CSDs and will leverage the existing infrastructures and processes of CSDs. The CSDs can connect to Link Up Markets either via proprietary communication networks or, later this year, via the SWIFT network. By connecting to the Link Up Markets infrastructure, each participating CSD will be able to access the services of the other linked CSD markets. Market participants will receive consistent best-in-class core settlement and custody services by directly accessing 8 markets via a single CSD gateway. The solution creates the potential to reduce the gap between domestic and cross-border costs for transactions significantly. Link Up Markets will facilitate existing European initiatives such as MiFID, the European Code of Conduct on Clearing and Settlement and TARGET2-Securities.
The participating CSDs will inform their customers about the service details of each launch window over the next few weeks.
Link Up Markets is a joint venture between the CSDs of Austria (Oesterreichische Kontrollbank), Cyprus (Cyprus Stock Exchange), Denmark (VP), Germany (Clearstream Banking Frankfurt), Greece (Hellenic Exchanges), Norway (VPS), Spain (Iberclear) and Switzerland (SIX SIS).