031007_Express II
PRESS RELEASE
MONTE TITOLI LAUNCHES EXPRESS II
Monte Titoli, a company of Borsa Italiana Group, in agreement with Banca d'Italia has drawn up the timetable for the launch of Express II, the new system for settlement of securities transactions.
The launch of the new net settlement service will be split into two phases:
- from 8 December 2003, Express II is used to settle transactions involving corporate bonds;
- from 26 January 2004, Express II is used to settle transactions involving all types of securities.
The net settlement service is organised in two separate cycles, overnight and daytime, and adopts different mechanisms for maximising the transactions being settled, such as securities lending and automatic collateralisation.
In particular, the introduction of an overnight net settlement cycle has the advantage of anticipating the settlement finality in the early hours in the morning, thereby enabling intermediaries to optimise the management of their liquidity.
During the daytime cycle, the platform will perform a further net settlement process to allow for the settlement of transactions that were not settled in the overnight cycle. Those transactions that remain unsettled at the end of this process will be submitted to the gross settlement service.
The new platform, designed in agreement with authorities, securities industry associations and intermediaries, gives Italian financial markets a highly efficient system that complies with the international standards and best practices.
In particular the functionalities of Express II, by adopting an innovative approach to the management of unsettled contracts owing to the unavailability of securities (technical fails), allow for the dismission of the "assegnazione" mechanism (the forced borrowing procedures currently managed by Banca d'Italia). Consequently, this will allow for a significant reduction in settlement risks.
Monte Titoli, in agreement with Banca d'Italia and Consob, has called for a task force to be set up for monitoring the final testing phases - currently in progress - involving the system participants and facilitating the smooth transition from the "Liquidazione dei Titoli" (LdT, the current net settlement procedure managed by Banca d'Italia) to Express II.