Clearstream’s core business continues growth in October 2004

Clearstream’s core business figures showed extended growth levels in October. The value of assets held in custody on behalf of customers rose to approximately EUR 7.5 trillion, a rise of 2.5 percent from the same month last year. The number of international transactions processed by Clearstream rose to 14.2 million year to date October 2004, an increase of 3 percent year on year (January to October 2003: 13.7 million). 18 percent of these transactions are registered as stock exchange transactions, 82 percent as Over the Counter (OTC) transactions. The introduction of the equity central counterparty in March 2003 continues to result in efficiency gains that affect domestic settlement transactions in Germany. As expected, the corresponding number for domestic transactions decreased by 30.5 percent from 39.3 million in 2003 to 27.3 million year to date 2004 with a ratio of 66 percent stock exchange transactions to 34 percent OTC transactions.

In other business areas, during October Clearstream’s CreationOnline real-time information service continued its rapid growth with customer interactions reaching another new record level of 1.7 million during October, representing an increase of 3 percent from the previous month. The number of registered users of CreationOnline increased last month by 670 to reach a total of 14,995 across 77 countries.

Clearstream’s investment funds service showed further volume increases with the number of investment funds related instructions processed reaching 132,332 in October 2004, a rise of 7.5 percent from the same month last year (October 2003: 123,116). In October, Clearstream added a new partner for the new Vestima+ service with IXIS Asset Management, the third-party asset management entity of Caisse d’Epargne Group’s investment banking arm.

Within the Global Securities Financing services business at Clearstream growth continues to develop. The combined services include tripartite repo, securities lending and collateral management and for October 2004 the average of collateral under management amounted to EUR 137.76 billion representing a rise of 34.86 percent from the same month last year (October 2003: EUR 102.15 billion).