Euroclear saw continued momentum in its H1 2019 financial and operational performance.
Assets under custody reached more than €30 trillion at the end of June, an increase of 1 percent year-on-year (YoY).
A record number of netted transactions settled in the Euroclear group reached 118 million, an increase of 2 percent compared to H1 2018 for a total value of €411 trillion.
Fund assets under custody increased by approximately 11 percent to €2.2 trillion compared to year-end 2018.
Euroclear’s collateral highway mobilised a record €1.3 trillion, up 1 percent YoY.
Further financial highlights included an 8 percent increase in operating income compared to H1 2018, to €725 million.
Business income increased 4 percent to €565 million, driven by continued growth in assets under custody combined with strong market activity levels across business segments.
Banking and other income increased 25 percent to €160 million boosted by client deposits and the benefit of higher US interest rates in H2 2018, according to Euroclear.
Meanwhile, in a strategic update, Euroclear noted that there is good progress on the Central Security Depository Regulation authorisation process.
As part of the progress, Euroclear Belgium, France and Nederland have all received licenses from their respective regulators.
Euroclear has also secured recognition for Euroclear UK & Ireland (EUI) by European Securities and Markets Authority making it well placed to continue its Irish securities settlement services after Brexit.
It as also outlined in the strategic update that the launch of the Collateral Portfolio Service has enabled Euroclear’s custodian clients to offer a triparty collateral management solution to their buy-side clients.
According to Euroclear, this makes triparty a truly portable service offering agnostic of the settlement and custody location.
Commenting on the results, Lieve Mostrey, CEO, said: “After a record level year for Euroclear in 2018, continued growth in the underlying key business metrics during the first half of this year has translated into strong performance for the Group.”
“This continued upward trend is fuelled by the attractiveness of our customer offer and our unique business model as an independent open-architecture financial market infrastructure. We remain confident in our business income growth trajectory, and are committed to delivering long-term, sustainable value for all our key stakeholders.”
