Clearstream has sustained its growth throughout 2015, reporting significant increases in business across the board, including a 25 percent increase in domestic CSD transactions and a 12 percent increase in assets under custody.
Overall assets under custody increased by 12 percent, reaching €13.5 trillion in March 2015, compared to €12.1 trillion in March 2014.
In the international central securities depository (ICSD), securities held under custody reached €7.1 trillion, a 12 percent increase on the €6.4 trillion recorded in March last year.
In the German central securities depository (CSD), domestic securities under custody reached €6.4 trillion, an 11 percent increase on March 2014’s total of €5.7 trillion.
At the end of March 2015, the combined value of assets under custody year-to-date increased by 9 percent compared to the same period in 2014, rising from €12 trillion to €13.2 trillion.
In the settlements business, the ICSD processed a total of 4.6 million settlement transactions. This is an increase of 18 percent, compared to 3.9 million in March 2014. Of March 2015’s total, 81 percent were over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, and 19 percent were on the stock exchange.
The domestic CSD processed 9.3 million transactions, 25 percent more than last March’s total of 7.4 million. Of these, 35 percent were OTC transactions and 65 percent were processed on the stock exchange.
Year-to-date, combined settlement transactions on the German and international CSDs reached 37.3 million, compared to 33.1 million in the same period last year. This is a 13 percent increase, year-to-date.
The growth in the ICSD is partially attributed to the investment fund services business, as its corresponding transactions also registered a 19 percent increase.
Clearstream’s investment fund services (IFS) division processed 1 million transactions in March 2015, a 34 percent increase on March 2014’s total of 700,000.
Year-to-date in 2015, IFS transactions totalled 2.7 million, compared to 2.2 million in the same period in 2014, an increase of 19 percent.
Philip Brown, a member of Clearstream’s executive board and head of global client relations, commented: “Our latest set of monthly numbers display that the positive trend in business volumes from January and February has been sustained through March. The growth of more than 10 percent in assets under custody, the key measure of our core business momentum, shows that our clients continue to deepen their relationships with us.”
“We are also delighted that clients are building their business with us across all of our product lines, where almost all showed double-digit percentage increases in volumes compared with a year ago.”
“We are extremely grateful to our clients for the trust they show in us, and will continue delivering to them the market-leading service with which we have become synonymous.”
These figures do not include the assets under custody or volumes of Citco Bank, which was acquired by Clearstream last year. These will be taken in to account once the bank has fully migrated its financial systems, a move planned for Q3 2015.
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